Mangaluru: Whipping up sanitisers to stay safe, healthy

MANGALURU: An engineer from here, successfully designed a foot-operated sanitiser stand (FOSS), which can be used without using one’s hands.
Arjun K Punja, who developed and donated FOSS units to many government hospitals, offices and police stations in Bantwal, has been receiving bulk orders from banks and different institutions. Hence, he has decided to manufacture FOSS units in bulk, and sell them to help the poor, who are suffering during the lockdown, through Sevanjali Prathishtana Farangipete, a charitable organisation in Bantwal taluk.
Punja, who is the trustee of Sevanjali Prathishtana, has also developed a foot-operated basin for washing hands, that has been donated to a police station in Mangaluru.
With the FOSS and wash basin developed by Punja, one need not touch the tap of the wash basin or press the sanitiser container. Punja said that his innovations help in containing the spread of the novel coronavirus.
“I have received orders for nearly 300 FOSS units. At present, it is being manufactured at a hall in Farangipete. It costs around Rs 1,000 to manufacture a unit. At present, it is being sold at Rs 1,450 per unit. The profit earned is being utilised to distribute food kits to poor families suffering due to the lockdown, through the prathishtana. We have already distributed more than 300 food kits to poor families. The sale of FOSS units is a good financial back up, for our food kit distribution programme,” Punja said.
Punja has distributed more than 50 FOSS units to many public offices. “KS Hegde Medical Academy has been using the FOSS units at its campus in Deralakatte. Dakshina Kannada police has plans to procure FOSS units for all their police stations.
MIT student makes, distributes sanitisers to poor
Simar Sharma, a third-year biotechnology student from Manipal Institute of Technology (MIT) at MAHE, has helped the underprivileged, in and around Kolkata .
She hails from West Bengal. She prepared and distributed hand sanitisers to daily wage workers, vegetable and fish vendors, quarantine homes, and people living in the slums in Kolkata, who live in unhygienic conditions, and cannot afford to buy hand sanitisers.
She prepared the hand sanitiser using iso-propyl alcohol, glycerol, essential oils and water. Simar has successfully made 150 bottles of sanitisers at home, while adhering to the safety standards set by the WHO. The sanitisers are 80% alcohol-based.
Simar said, “My professors and friends helped me in gathering all the required material. In fact, donations from across various parts of the country are pouring in, and it has motivated me to produce three more batches of sanitisers, which will be approximately 600l. I have collaborated with the police, to distribute these in marketplaces and slums, where they are needed the most.”
D Srikanth Rao, director, Manipal Institute of Technology, MAHE said, “We at MIT strive to build an accepting environment to foster creativity and out-of-the-box thinking among our students. Our incubation centre has always encouraged our students to think for themselves.”