All the South-South award winners.
Sagar Mehta is 2nd from left

India Impex, a company in which two community members – Shashank Sureshchandra Mehta and Samir Suresh Kothari – are partners, has won a second honour, the Annual Award for South-South & Triangular Cooperation for Innovation for innovation at the Global South-South Expo hosted by UNIDO / UNDP / UNOSSC at Vienna in late November 2012.

This is the second international success India Impex has achieved in recent months to add to the prestigious Aid Innovation Challenge Award it won earlier at AidEx 2012 held in late October in Brussels.

The South-South award was presented by Alison Chartres, Vice-President of the United Nations General Assembly's High-level Committee on South-South Cooperation and Yiping Zhou, Director of the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation & Deputy-Director General, UNIDO and was received by Sagar Shashank Mehta on behalf of the company.

(from l) Sagar Mehta, Shashank Mehta
and Samir Kothari with the Aidex award

 

Both awards were for its portable solar-powered lantern, Sunlite, which gives a light output of up to 10 hours and has numerous other innovative features that make it extremely useful in remote areas without access to electricity or during relief work in disaster-hit zones. In fact, the lanterns were widely used by UNCHR during relief work in Japan’s tsunami hit areas.The lantern also has an inbuilt mobile charger, and is partly made out of recycled plastic.

The company was first shortlisted as one of the four finalists among nearly 40 other contestants from different countries across the world, and then went on to win the top prize. The Aid Innovation Challenge award selects the product which combines innovation and creativity to meet the needs of those working in disaster and emergency zones.  

Michael Pritchard, CEO of LIFESAVER systems and one of the award judges said that the lantern represents a good transition from a traditional lamp into a technological device. He praised the manufacturers for features like the “water proofing, overall design, theft risks, and …… mobile phone charger” as well as for making it extremely affordable.

Solar lantern

India Impex was established in 1984 as a manufacturer & exporter of ready-made garments with Shashank Mehta, son of late Shri Sureshchandra Mangaljibhai Mehta, as principal promoter. In 2009 it diversified into solar lighting business and Mehta was joined by his brother-in-law Samir Suresh Kothari, son of late Shri Suresh Chandulalbhai Kothari and a third partner, UK based Divyesh Thakkar. Last year their sons, Sagar S. Mehta and Amar S. Kothari also joined the business.

In the three years since it was established Sunlite lanterns have been used in over a dozen countries across Asia and Africa. Last November, India Impex signed a Frame Agreement with United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (U.N.H.C.R.), Geneva for supplies of Solar Lanterns as approved vendors, a Frame Agreement for 2+1 years under which all other U.N.(United Nations) sponsored agencies can piggy back and  can procure solar lanterns.