Krystelle Dsouza

Authored case studies on frontier innovations across sectors of healthcare, urban development, space, defence, security and education.

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From the Army to Banks: The Indian Startup Building Tomorrow’s Cyber Defences Today

Here’s a simple (albeit farsighted) question.  What will protect India’s data in the age of quantum computing? It’s a question two engineers, Sunil Gupta and Srinivasa Rao Aluri, asked in 2016.  This was still a time when quantum technology was largely confined to research laboratories, but the duo recognised that today’s encryption methods could eventually become vulnerable to quantum computers.  They set out to build technologies that could secure India’s digital future. Incubated at IIT Madra...

How AI-Powered Underwater Robots Are Transforming India’s Marine Infrastructure and Coral Conservation

EyeROV, a Kochi-based marine deep-tech startup founded in 2017 by IIT graduates Johns T. Mathai and Kannappa Palaniappan, has developed one of India’s first indigenous full-stack underwater robotics platforms, combining artificial intelligence, robotics and advanced imaging to inspect underwater infrastructure and support marine conservation.  The innovation addresses a long-standing challenge in underwater operations, where inspections of dams, tunnels, ship hulls, pipelines and bridges have tr...

Dhruva Space’s Satellite Technology Is Reshaping Agriculture, Cities, and Disaster Response

When Sanjay Nekkanti witnessed the devastation caused by the 2001 Gujarat earthquake and saw how the collapse of communication networks slowed rescue efforts, it stayed in his mind.  The role of HAM radio operators (which were not reliant on commercial cellular networks or the internet) during the crisis sparked his belief that space-based technology could help keep people connected during emergencies.  Years later, this idea became Dhruva Space, a Hyderabad-based space startup building satellit...

40,000 Digital Runners, 3.2 Million Lives Reached: The Tech Transforming Rural India’s Access to Healthcare

Anaxee, an Indore-based deep-tech startup, has built one of India’s largest last-mile execution networks by connecting organisations with a distributed workforce of local youth called Digital Runners. Founded by Govind Agrawal, Arti Agrawal and Nilesh Maheshwari, the company addresses a long-standing challenge faced by businesses, governments and NGOs, which is reaching people and places in remote and underserved parts of India.  While digital connectivity has expanded rapidly, physical access t...

Spark School AI is Helping Teachers Save 50% of Lesson Planning Time

The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 is India’s first education policy of the 21st century, designed to transform the country’s education system into one that is equitable, inclusive, multidisciplinary, and globally competitive while remaining rooted in Indian values and culture.    It envisions education as a fundamental driver of human potential, social justice, national development, and economic progress. The policy seeks to ensure inclusive and quality education for all and promote lifel...

How 2 Lakh Farmers Are Using AI To Earn Carbon Credits By Removing 2 Million Tonnes of Carbon

Picture farmer Ramesh.  He owns 2 acres of land. Usually, he burns crop residue after harvest and ploughs the soil deeply every season. These practices release carbon into the atmosphere. Climate-led company Varaha, which was started in 2022 to empower smallholder farmers in India, approaches him and suggests a few changes: don’t burn crop residue, plant trees around the farm (agroforestry), use biochar and reduce tillage and follow regenerative farming practices. These changes help the soil sto...

The Indian Innovation Targeting Air Pollution by Capturing Particulate Matter, Thus Improving Public Health

Particulate matter (PM) is one of the most harmful forms of air pollution.  Think of this as microscopic solid particles and liquid droplets that can be inhaled deep into the lungs and, in some cases, even enter the bloodstream. These particles are made up of dust, acids, organic chemicals, metals and soot, and originate from sources including vehicle emissions, industrial processes, construction activity, burning of fossil fuels, tobacco smoke, wildfires and dust storms.  They are invisible to...

How Frontier Robotics Could Replace Dangerous Manual Work

Captain D Chandrasekhar’s innovation began with a question he first asked himself while cleaning an oil tank as a Merchant Navy officer in the mid-1990s: why were humans still entering one of the world’s most hazardous industrial environments to remove sludge when technology had advanced enough to send people to the moon?  Nearly three decades later, that question became the motivation for BetaTANK Robotics to develop patented robotic systems that clean petroleum and petrochemical storage tanks...

AI & Elderly Mobility: A Smart Cane That Gives Seniors Their Independence Back

Recent news is rife with examples of how artificial intelligence is transforming elderly care, bringing innovation to a field that, until recently, received relatively little attention in discussions about technological advancement.  We set our sights on how technology can address one of the world’s most pressing demographic challenges: an ageing population that requires sustained, personalised and accessible care. Traditionally, elderly care has depended heavily on family members, caregivers an...

CIMCON’s Smart Water Technology is Building Intelligent Water Networks

Every drop of water counts.    In the current age, where droughts have become rampant across India — studies suggest around 85 percent of districts in 13 states are now considered high-risk drought zones — this adage holds even more weight. And, in order to conserve every drop, in a literal sense, Anil Agrawal of Ahmedabad-based CIMCON came up with a solution.    His model uses sensors, automation and artificial intelligence to help cities, towns and villages monitor water networks, pumping stat...

3 Lakh Students, One Smartphone-First Revolution: How CodeYogi Is Democratising AI

For decades, people from India’s underserved communities have believed AI technology isn’t for them. Can you blame them? A report in The Wire, spotlighting how AI endangers diversity, spoke of how AI’s application “in this age of inequality has the potential of exacerbating existing inequalities and plaguing underprivileged communities”. But there’s also another side to this; the article further went on to explore the potential of AI as a “greater science” in lifting underprivileged communities...

From Smart Cow Collars to Carbon Credits: How AI Is Transforming Dairy Farming for 22 Lakh Farmers Across India

Founded in 2022 by Ashish Sonkusare, alongside co-founders Shailendra Narwade and Vidhi Gaur, eVerse.AI was created to bridge the technology gap in India’s dairy sector.  After decades of working with global technology companies, Ashish realised that while industries around the world had embraced digital innovation, smallholder dairy farmers continued to rely on guesswork for critical decisions affecting animal health and productivity.  The team set out to use Artificial Intelligence (AI), Inter...

30-Min Farm Loans, 60k Lending Opportunities: AI Is Transforming Agricultural Credit

Agriculture is the undisputed backbone of India’s economy. But while the past decade has witnessed policy reforms, bank nationalisations, priority sector lending and targeted agricultural credit schemes, which have expanded institutional finance, credit access to farmers remains limited.  According to research, despite the Government of India’s continued efforts to promote agricultural lending, only around 29 percent of farmers have access to formal credit. Small and marginal farmers (SMFs), who...

Inside the Copper Nanotechnology Powering 99.99% Antimicrobial Activity

Copper is versatile as an antimicrobial. While the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) officially declared this in 2008 — the report stated that copper and its alloys can eliminate approximately 99.9 percent of bacteria within two hours — the use of copper as an antimicrobial dates back to 3000 BC.  To understand copper’s antimicrobial applications and what leaning into it would mean for the healthcare industry at large, we assess the current uses of copper and its strong cont...

CanAssist Breast (CAB): How AI Can Transform Breast Cancer Treatment

Studies indicate that breast cancer has recently made its way up the list (from position four during the 1990s to one) of being the most common form of cancer (among women) in the country. The future seems bleak with epidemiological studies indicating that the global burden of breast cancer is expected to cross almost 2 million by the year 2030.    To this end, we turn our gaze to patients diagnosed with breast cancer, which, like every disease, has varying forms of severity. In the case of brea...

This IIT Madras Initiative Is Breaking Language Barriers in AI Education

How can the scope of various professional avenues be widened when people begin integrating AI (artificial intelligence) into them?    It can be revolutionary.    But when language stands as a barrier, how can this be overcome?    The answer lies in ‘AI For All’, a set of courses by IIT Madras, introduced in Hindi on SWAYAM Plus, making AI education more accessible to learners across India. Introduced in May 2025 in collaboration with IIT Madras Pravartak, the initiative aims to democratise AI li...

This Agrivoltaics Idea Could Power India’s Farms Without Taking Away Farmland

Farmers across India are keen to give in to sustainability — think integrating solar power on their lands — but not at the cost of losing their arable land. And, within this dichotomy, a solution has emerged: agrivoltaics. Farmer Anand Jain’s 16-acre farm in Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, is an exemplar.  Here, Anand has pioneered one of India’s most ambitious agrivoltaic projects, proving that solar energy and agriculture can thrive together on the same land. Rather than sacrificing fertile farmland fo...

How Bharat-VISTAAR Is Connecting 140M+ Farmers to Smarter Agriculture

In a move that will enable AI (artificial intelligence) to broaden its user base to India’s farming community — the country has an estimated 110 million land-owning farmers — the government announced the launch of Bharat VISTAAR (Virtually Integrated System to Access Agricultural Resources) as part of the Union Budget 2026.  Think of it as an AI-powered, voice-first, multilingual, national Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) platform for agriculture, connecting farmers, government agencies, rese...

How Yatri Is Transforming Mumbai’s Public Transport Through Data and AI

Hailed as one of the busiest commuter rail networks, the Mumbai locals ferry 7.5 million passengers every single day. With its maze of tracks snaking their way across the city’s western, eastern, northern, southern and central corridors, one can only fathom how minutely controlled every train’s arrival and departure must be to make for a seamless flow.  You’ll agree it’s more than a transportation system; the network is a critical enabler of urban development. By moving these millions of passeng...

EV Doctor: Using Artificial Intelligence to Prevent Battery Failures

The EV Doctor ensures that every electric vehicle meets critical safety and performance standards through a comprehensive health assessment. In just 15 minutes, the diagnostic process delivers a detailed evaluation of the vehicle’s condition, with a particular focus on battery health. This comes at a time when India is seeking to attain a 30 percent share of electric vehicles in the total vehicles sold by 2030, according to a NITI Aayog report titled ‘Unlocking a $200 Billion Opportunity: Electr...