3 minute read
CavinKare-MMA Chinnikrishnan Innovation Awards 2020
The 9th edition of CavinKare MMA Chinnikrishnan Innovation Award Ceremony 2020 was held, for the first time in virtual mode and was telecast by Republic TV on 17 October. Group Captain R Vijayakumar (Retd) VSM and Executive Director of MMA welcomed the guests, award winners and all the viewers.
“In the midst of a pandemic and serial lockdowns and restrictions, how do we get the selection and award process going? MMA decided to take up the challenge head on and we innovatively switched our gears to a 100% online process – right from nomination to the award ceremony,” said Group Captain Vijayakumar in his opening remarks. He added, “Such an online award process would have sounded sheer crazy six months ago. And, that’s exactly how all great innovations have happened.”
Mr C K Ranganathan, CMD, CavinKare in his address said, “My father Chinnikrishnan was a dreamer. He firmly believed that whatever a rich man enjoys, a common man should be able to afford.” He highlighted the struggles his father faced in launching the sachet and his lack of knowledge about patenting his innovation. “It was good that everybody followed suit and sachet became popular not only in shampoos and hair oil but across categories. It has created millions of jobs,” he added.
Mr Ranganathan said that the purpose of the innovation award is to encourage small and tiny enterprises that have great ideas and help them to scale up. From CavinKare, he offered to mentor and handhold them. He also appealed to corporates to coach and guide such small ventures to convert their innovations to profitable models.
Mr B Santhanam, CMD, Saint Gobain India Pvt Ltd and Jury Chief stated that it was a riveting process for the jury team. “More than 10 of us debated each and every idea and invested considerable amount of time. MMA–CavinKare team helped us to instantly connect with the innovators online, so that we could see them, talk to them and understand the next steps in the innovation process,” he said. According to him, the online process was much better than the offline process. He was delighted that a lot of youngsters participated in the award process.
Mr Sanjay Kirloksar, CMD, Kirloskar Brothers Limited in his address as the Chief Guest congratulated all the winners. “Having an idea is fine. Understanding if it is practical and shaping it into a profitable product or service is where the real challenge is,” he said.
~ B Santhanam, CMD, Saint Gobain India, and Jury chief
Recalling the humble beginning of KBL, he said, “Great success always starts with a small beginning. KBL was started as a bicycle repair shop by my great grandfather Lakshman Rao Kirloskar. He believed that an idea, mall or big, had the potential to be successful. It was his belief that led to the launch of India’s first iron plough in the year 1903 that replaced the traditional wooden plough and revolutionalised Indian agriculture.” He remarked that if one has the conviction in one’s idea and the tenacity to overcome initial obstacles, success will follow. Three awards were presented in the Innovations category and two awards in the Great Idea category. Er Manickam A Gounder & Dr Raman Sivakumar, Chairman MAC Group of Companies and Chief Scientist, MAC India Ltd; Lt Dr K.P.Sridhar, Founder S&G Innovators and Mr Sriram Gopal, Founder & CEO, Future Farms won the Innovation awards. Mr Amirtha Ganesh won in the Great Idea category. Ms Sruthi Babu won the Special Jury award for Great Idea.
