Pune's 'Borecharger' Bags Top Honours At Infosys Aarohan Awards For Rainwater Harvesting Tech

Pune: Infosys Foundation, the philanthropic and CSR arm of Infosys, today announced the winners of the fourth edition of the Aarohan Social Innovation Awards. Launched in 2018, these awards recognise and reward individuals and teams developing breakthrough solutions for social good that improve lives and uplift communities across India.

This year, the Awards honored exceptional innovations in Education, Healthcare, and Environmental Sustainability – three focus areas that align closely with Infosys Foundation’s mission to drive social impact through technology, creativity, and compassion. Selected from over 2,000 entries,

The winners of the Aarohan Social Innovation Awards 2025, each receiving INR 50 lakh for their impactful innovations, are:

Education – Rajesh A Rao, Ravindra S Rao, and Deepa L B Rajeev from Bengaluru, who developed ‘Connecting the Dots’, an interactive learning program designed to teach STEM and spoken English to government school students from Grades 6 to 10 through daily live classes, lab kits, scholarships, and teacher training for effective learning.

Healthcare – Chitranjan Singh and Robin Singh from New Delhi, who developed ‘CLUIX C012’, a portable AI- and IoT-enabled water-quality analyser that generates real-time, GPS-tagged reports. It tests 14 key parameters to identify waterborne diseases within 30 minutes, making reliable water testing affordable, accessible, and sustainable across both urban and rural communities.

Environmental Sustainability – Rahul Suresh Bakare and Vinit Moreshwar Phadnis from Pune, who developed ‘Borecharger’, the world’s first robotic artificial borewell-recharge technique that can inject 4 to 80 lakh liters of rainwater into existing borewells annually – improving irrigation, farm production and farmer income, improving drinking water quality and quantity – making habitations more sustainable.

Salil Parekh, Chairman, Infosys Foundation, said, “Innovation with purpose has the power to transform lives and build a sustainable future. The Aarohan Social Innovation Awards stand as a testament to this belief, recognising individuals who transform challenges into opportunities with ingenuity, empathy, and impact. By championing groundbreaking work across education, healthcare, and environmental sustainability, we at Infosys Foundation aim to strengthen the impact of such innovations and inspire a generation of changemakers committed to building an equitable and resilient future.”

In addition to the category winners, the jury recognised five social innovations and awarded their creators prize money of INR 10 lakh each. The Jury’s Special Award-winning innovations are:

Sukoon – A smart jacket based on a Digital Hybrid-IDEC mechanism that cools users in extreme heat-stress environments to improve health and optimize productivity, developed by Phalgun Mukesh Vyas from Pune.

Comprehensive Wildlife Management Platform – A web-based platform that records and manages data across wildlife rescue, treatment, rehabilitation, and release. It uses a One Health framework to link animal, human, and environmental health, supporting governance, surveillance, and threat assessment. Developed by Neha Panchamiya and Nachiket Utpat from Pune.

Project Bindu – An initiative that creates remote, tech-enabled work ecosystems for persons with disabilities (PWDs), who in turn provide elderly-care services, backend support, data handling, and coordination. This enables PWDs to achieve economic independence and inclusion. Developed by Sowmya S and Pallavi Kulkarni from Pune.

CERVICHECK – India’s first CDSCO-approved at-home self-sampling kit for HPV (Human Papillomavirus) screening, developed by Anirban Palit, Dr Sayantani Pramanik, and Palna Patel, from Vadodara.

Hexis & Iris – India’s only integrated learning ecosystem for visually impaired students, combining a unique refreshable Braille display, a tactile diagram explorer, and a teacher-content platform to enable advanced reading and STEM learning for K–12 special schools and inclusive classrooms. Developed by Nagarajan Rajagopal, Vidhya Y, and Supriya Dey from Bengaluru.

Sumit Virmani, Trustee, Infosys Foundation, said, “At the heart of the Aarohan Social Innovation Awards lies the belief that ordinary people can do extraordinary things. The dedication and imagination of this year’s winners speak of what is possible when innovation is rooted in compassion. We are inspired by their resolve to create sustainable, community-first solutions, and hope their efforts continue to spark positive change across the country.”