The project intends to identify challenges to accelerate linear growth among infants/children in low-income settings and strategies to overcome them. The study proposes delivery of an integrated package of interventions (nutritional, environmental, WASH and care) during pregnancy and early childhood in a community-based model. Using stratified randomization, the proposal has been designed in a manner that permits the assessment of the impact of these intervention packages when delivered synergistically or independently on the growth and development of the young child.

Asif Mohammed from the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology in India will identify miRNA patterns as potential biomarkers as per Receiver Operating Characteristics, to identify quantitative patterns of circulating human miRNAs which can be used as early biomarkers to predict outcome of the anti-TB drug therapy. They will follow-up patients during their course of treatment with first line anti-TB drugs, and will isolate, sequence, identify and quantitate circulating miRNAs in sputum and plasma of these individuals at one month, two month and 6/9 months of treatment.

This project aims to redefine the receiving material for human waste from water to granular material, thereby completely bypassing the need for water in this process. The project aims to redesign the conventional toilet to use a bed of granular that will ensure that there is no fecal staining of the system, fecal matter is cut-off from vectors, does not contaminate surface waters and that the user is always presented with a fresh, clean and dry surface.

Srikanth Mutnuri from BIRAC in India in collaboration with Willy Verstraete from Ghent University in Belgium, will aim to develop a financially affordable and simple-to-operate decentralized wastewater treatment system for a single household as well as for a gated community of 100 people (25 families) that will produce high quality effluent for safe disposal. The waste treatment system relies on electrochemical reactions and the production of chlorine, to manipulate the pH of the wastewater to destroy pathogens and helminthes.

In this ICT-based pilot project, Digital Education, tested the impact of a combination of ICT and Participatory Learning Action (PLA) approaches to improve women's knowledge of nutrition in 30 villages. They promoted the dissemination of a series of nutrition-specific participatory videos to address nutrition-specific behaviors, locally feasible solutions as well as expenditure patterns to improve maternal and child diet quality.

Lazar Mathew and team are working on a smart pill box that tracks exactly the time through radio frequency identification (RFID) of the dose coupled with SMS trigger systems. The pill box can dispense blister packs rather than tablets, and incorporates a timer which can only be programmed by the medicine provider. Medication cannot be taken out before or after certain times, preventing double dosage. SMS reminders will be sent to family members as well. Monitoring of up to 90 dosages will be possible with a table-top dispenser.

Anuradha Lele and team from CDAC are building an integrated SMS and voice calling solution, which involves mobile-based applications with forms to register patients, a lab form for sputum examinations, IVRS/missed call reminders, and a patient monitoring application for doctors and DOTS workers. The system also plans to include next of kin and friends to enable seamless monitoring of drug intake of the patient.

Bill Thies and the team of 99DOTS aim to achieve 99% TB drug adherence using a combination of basic mobile phones and augmented blister packaging to provide real-time medication monitoring at drastically reduced cost. The approach is to utilize a custom envelope, or blister card, into which each pack of medication is inserted and sealed by the care provider. When the patient dispenses medication from the blister pack, the pills also break through perforated flaps on the blister card. On the back side of each flap is a hidden number. Patients submit these numbers using their mobile phone as evidence that they have dispensed medication. To avoid incurring any mobile charges, the numbers are used to complete a phone number and deliver a "Missed call" (Missed calls are free if they are not pointed to a VoiceMail). Using this system patients also receive a series of daily reminders (via SMS and automated calls). Missed doses trigger SMS notifications to care providers, who follow up with personal, phone-based counseling. Real-time adherence reports are also made available on the web.

Manjari Deb and team are developing a small, electronic pill dispenser called the CoxBox that enables real-time tracking of patient treatment adherence and inventory. The CoxBox innovation provides a relatively inexpensive and easily implementable solution for action-oriented monitoring and controlling of anti-tubercular drug adherence through the use of a microcontroller-based electromechanical pill box with programmable alarm annunciator and a built-in mobile device.

Nakul Pasricha and team are working to develop special cards, called myTBdoc cards, with unique alphanumeric identifiers printed on them to be given to medical representatives (MRs). TB medicines manufactured by Lupin will also have unique identifiers printed on them. MRs will give myTBdoc cards to private doctors that see TB patients, educating them on correct TB prescription methods. Doctors will then give these cards to new TB patients, instructing them to SMS the unique code on the card (enrolling them in our program) and to SMS the unique codes printed on their TB drugs as they take them. PharmaSecure will then deliver phone interventions, such as reminders to take medicines, follow up calls, and TB health tips via SMS and voice calls. Lupin holds a major market share in the Indian TB drug market, and hence the solution will reach out to a larger affected population easily.

Nishant Kumar and team are building a mobile hardware app which can serve an electronic pill box and can be attached to a conventional mobile phone. The hardware attachment has a rectangular sleek design, which can be fixed onto the mobile phone or can be used separately. A mobile application runs on the phone and controls the hardware attachment via Bluetooth. This product also facilitates a novel points-based incentives system to further encourage the patient towards continued adherence. A complementary mobile phone application runs on the handheld devices of the health worker. The hardware attachment can either be distributed as a standalone product or with a phone.

Shashank Garg and team will develop a mobile solution that addresses problems in adherence to TB treatment through the key technologies of mobile phone-based electronic forms, workflow management, identity management, and electronic health records. The objective is to achieve automated tracking and monitoring of individual TB patients for adherence to the TB treatment protocol. ASHA workers will use the mobile application for collection of dosage intake data in the field. A workflow system will provide a closed loop through SMS alerts in case a patient defaults. Along with identity management and a TB treatment record, the system will ensure patients are able to seek treatment even on migration, thus maintaining continuity of treatment. This mobile solution is novel because it will use a form-based mobile application capable of running in disconnected or offline mode, with data connectivity being required only for the duration of data upload to the server.

Shweta Roy and team are developing a small, electronic, tablet strip holder that enables real-time tracking of patient treatment adherence and inventory. The tablet strip holder will be small in size, embedded with a weighing scale to monitor change in weight of tablet strips and thereby monitor treatment adherence. Any change in the weight of the strip will be recorded on a server via SMS using a telemetric SIM within the holder. If the change in weight is not detected within a given time period, the device will trigger a non-compliance alert through SMS to the patient and caregiver DOTS observer. The holder will also have an inbuilt alarm to alert the patient in case of missed dosages. The final product will be light weight and sleek in design and the patient will be able carry the tablet strip holder like a mobile phone. Minimal patient input is expected, making this device user friendly, and alerts can be customized as per regional language. The cost of the final device is expected to be $10 - 12 USD per piece.

Kouichi Hasegawa of the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine in India will develop an assay using human liver cells to study the parasite Plasmodium vivax, which causes malaria, and to screen for new anti-malarial drugs. During the parasitic life cycle inside human hosts, P. vivax infects hepatocytes (liver cells), where it can lie dormant and protected from treatment, leading to disease relapse. To identify new drugs to target this stage of P. vivax requires large numbers of human liver cells, which are difficult to obtain and often unsuitable. A new approach will be used to generate human hepatocytes by isolating a type of white blood cell from individuals infected with P. vivax, and inducing them to differentiate into hepatocytes, which should better support parasite growth. Once validated, this P. vivax liver-stage culture system will be used in a preliminary screen of a set of chemical compounds to identify new anti-malarial drugs. This grant was selected through India's IKP Knowledge Park and their IKP-GCE program.