Tough odds fail to deter startup founder

Growing a few vegetables and running a small farm is a dream for many people. However, the inability to spend long hours tending to plants and a lack of expertise often act as deterrents.

But Gourish G. Pillai, a final-year IT student at Barton Hill Engineering College, says he has a solution for such people. It is a hydroponic system that uses a mobile surveillance camera to monitor the plants daily and employs a machine learning algorithm to ensure their healthy growth.

“The idea is to help those who want to do a bit of farming but are hesitant to start due to other commitments. I think there is a substantial market out there for such a product,” says Gourish.

His idea has impressed officials at the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare, and his startup, Zelbytes Private Limited, has been selected for incubation under the Pusa Krishi Incubator of ICAR-IARI, which aims to make agriculture easy, inclusive, and remunerative. They have awarded him a grant of 5 lakh rupees and will provide expertise from various arms of the ministry.

Zelbytes was registered as a startup in 2021 but had struggled to develop a prototype and conduct trials, despite the relatively modest financial requirements.

This was after spending several thousand rupees to create the company, register as a startup, and fabricate the necessary hardware, which had already exhausted the 100,000 rupees provided by a mentor investor.

Such circumstances can push a student startup founder into a state of despair, but not Gourish as what he faced as a teenager was far worse.

Tough Beginning

Growing up under the dark clouds of parental disputes, Gourish was forced to bear the responsibility of looking after his mum by the time he finished school. Despite securing an impressive 98 percent mark, the teen had to abandon scholarship opportunities and turn to growing vegetables around his house to generate an income.

Without any backing or powerful connections, the police machinery also added to their troubles as the dispute escalated. Until the court stepped in to offer protection for his mother, Gourish had to till the land, sell buffaloes, and tutor students to keep the fire burning in his house.

By the time he was 17, Gourish was also repairing computers, designing websites, and doing odd tech jobs, having discovered coding by sheer accident during his school days.

He was in the 9th standard at TM Varghese Memorial School in Mavelikkara when a competition event caught his eye: website design. “I thought I’d probably have to draw a design using some software, so I entered my name,” he recalls.

He only found out later that it involved writing code, which was part of the 10th standard syllabus. So he borrowed a textbook, taught himself, and managed to finish within the top ten. By the time the competition came around the next year, he placed in the top three.

Young Farmer

Even as the twists of fate forced him to take up farming after his school days, his scientific temper continued to guide him. Unlike other farmers who relied on trial and error, Gourish adopted methodical steps recommended by local agriculture officials. His efforts earned the 18-year-old two awards as the Best Young Farmer in the Mavelikkara area in 2018.

Once he had saved enough money from farming to relocate his family, he began seeking opportunities to escape from the turbulence and ensure his mother’s safety. He moved to the nearby town of Kottayam and established a coaching centre for school students.

This venture brought financial stability, but when the Covid pandemic struck, the centre had to shut down. The end of that income again threw the youngsterinto the deep end. Seeking an escape route, he took the engineering entrance exam and secured a seat at Barton Hill Engineering College in Trivandrum.

“Along with my studies, I also saw this as a way to ensure financial stability, knowing that the Trivandrum market offered more opportunities.”

Double role

Even as he began his engineering studies, Gourish continued his tutoring work while expanding his web design and computer repair services to cover his college and home expenses. The ongoing legal proceedings were another significant drain on his meagre resources, which continue even now.

It was that constant pressure that led to the idea of launching a startup. Naturally, his stint as a farmer laid the groundwork for establishing Zelbytes.

Since classes were online during that period, he had enough time to pursue his ventures, with friends helping out by logging in under his name to maintain his attendance. However, the resumption of face-to-face classes in 2021 spelled trouble for him.

In an education system that insists on class attendance, and with the lack of time squeezing his income, things came to a head by the time he was finishing his second year at college. With his savings depleted and very little time to take on outside work, the young student found himself in financial trouble again.

Moreover, as he was doing odd jobs, including food delivery until 2am, his college attendance became erratic. When teachers noticed that he was arriving late, not submitting assignments on time, and being absent from other campus activities, he was labelled as a lazy student.

“They didn’t know what was going on, and I didn’t want to go begging for their sympathy. Only a few friends knew, and they helped me whenever they could.”

Breaking Point

Although he had not fallen behind in exams, the unforgiving system was not going to give him any leeway. Everything came to a head when it was time to pay the next installment of the college fees.

“I had nowhere to turn and couldn’t even raise a few thousand rupees. In any case, I wasn’t keen on asking people for loans either. So I decided to discontinue my studies and find ways to ensure financial stability.”

He returned to the familiar territory of teaching and launched his own tuition centre, Campuso Education, in Mavelikara. His reputation as a good teacher helped, and the venture quickly brought in returns. Within a year, Gourish made enough reserves to resume his studies.

He then began seeking help to develop his startup and approached institutions like Kerala Startup Mission and other organisations that encouraged startups. The process was slow and bureaucratic, but he finally received approval from ICAR-IARI.

Gourish says that with the incubation secured, his target now is to get his prototype validated through the agriculture ministry’s various channels and proceed to the next stage of incubation, which offers 25 lakh rupees.

“That will help me fine-tune the prototype with feedback from users all over the country, which is a valuable step before I can consider entering the market. There is a lot of work to do, but I am excited and ready to go. Right now, I am assembling a team to start the work in earnest.”

Training Students

Last year, he also helped launch a platform called NexForce at his college, which assists students in gaining hands-on experience by securing contracts for work in various sectors, ranging from machine learning to product design.

More than 50 students have gained valuable experience under Gourish’s guidance, and now they are ready to mentor the next batch of students to ensure the platform’s continuity. Plans are also afoot to register it as a startup.

Gourish says the platform serves two purposes. One is to provide students with work experience, and the second is to offer an opportunity for those facing financial hardship to earn some money.

“I know how tough that situation can be. I don’t want anyone to go through what I endured.”

Championbots make a splash

Did you see the Table Tennis clip? No, we’re not talking about the Paris Olympics, but one featuring the bot developed by Google’s DeepMind. The robot was able to beat all beginner-level players and 55 percent of intermediate-level paddlers. The video shows some deft moves by the robot, indicating how rapidly improvements are occurring in robotics. According to MIT Technology Review, the bot collects data on its performance while playing and refines its skills as the game progresses. Given such rapid progress, machines to assist with domestic chores and other complex tasks could soon become a reality.

China is the champion country when it comes to both Table Tennis and robotics. Recently, Shenyang Aerospace Xinguang Group showcased a robotic shark that mimics almost every action of a real one. It floats, swims, dives, and even makes mouth movements, reports Interesting Engineering. The robotic whale shark can monitor water quality, map underwater terrain, and carry out specialised tasks. Pity it came a few decades too late for Steven Spielberg, whose troubles with mechanical sharks is legendary.

A digital lesson from South Korea

South Korea is set to introduce AI-powered digital textbooks in 2025, and schools have already started receiving digital whiteboards, thanks to tech giants like Samsung and LG. Teachers can give voice commands from anywhere in the room to the AI, which automatically transcribes or summarises lessons. According to a report by Nikkei Asia, LG has already started selling its edutech tools abroad and has sold 10,000 digital whiteboards to 2,900 public schools in Odisha. It says representatives of the company travelled to villages across the country to ask schools about their needs. We wonder if that included Kerala too.

Jakarta offers AI help to fishermen

Fishermen in Indonesia are now using AI to locate schools of fish in the sea by using a tablet before heading out. The tablet also updates the information several times a day, providing users with the latest changes on the sea. This initiative comes from the government, which has launched an app called NN Marlin that utilises satellite data to determine the location of fish schools. The government agency Brin also uses the technology to study climate change, predict forest fires, and monitor mangrove deforestation, reports Rest of the World. In India, we are still organising conclaves on the uses of AI.

Hey teacher, leave our AI alone

Ever since ChatGPT made its debut, universities have been in a bit of a panic, worried that students would start outsourcing their assignments to AI. Now, OpenAI claims they've developed a system that can sniff out AI-generated work, reports The Wall Street Journal. They haven't spilled the beans on how it works but boast a 99.99 percent accuracy rate. So, are the easy days over for students? Not so fast – OpenAI is reluctant to release it, as it fears its customers will switch to other chatbots. Looks like students can keep their new secret weapon a little longer.