New Delhi: When Cyclone Idai struck Zimbabwe in 2019, communication networks collapsed, leaving entire communities cut off from rescue services and exposing gaps in emergency communication and disaster response.
Manjeya, a final-year electrical and electronics engineering student at Aditya University, was among six young innovators from across India who presented solutions to real-world problems at the ‘Viasat: Space for Good India Challenge’ finale, but the jury was not letting their ideas fly without scrutiny. Organised by Viasat, a satellite communications company, in strategic partnership with Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre (IN-SPACe), the second edition of the competition shortlisted finalists from a multi-stage selection process.
“Plants undergo subtle shifts in their internal rhythms long before visible signs of disease, drought or environmental stress appear,” he explained. “Traditional collision-warning protocols can take hours for human operators to react, wasting valuable fuel and endangering operational satellites,” she explained. Taking satellite technology into agriculture, Shashank Kumar Singh, a PhD researcher at IIT Gandhinagar, proposed ChronoSentinel, a system that combines satellite observations with the internal biological clocks of plants. By tracking these changes from space, the technology could help farmers and forest managers identify distress early and intervene before significant damage is done. The focus of the competition then shifted from problems on Earth to dangers in space. Adeetya Uppal, an aerospace engineering student at IIT Kharagpur, developed Drishti, an AI-powered system to prevent collisions involving space debris. You Can Also Check: Gold Rate in Delhi | Silver Rate in Delhi | Bank Holidays in Delhi | Public Holidays in Delhi | Delhi AQI | Weather in Delhi | Petrol Price in Delhi | Diesel Price in Delhi | CNG Price in Delhi | LPG Price in Delhi
Manjeya’s project, Aegis, proposes solar-powered communication hubs that allow stranded people to send SOS messages when mobile networks fail. The system will also use AI to analyse environmental data, anticipate infrastructure failures and identify safer evacuation routes.