Pune Innovators Shine at Infosys Aarohan Awards 2025; ‘Borecharger’ Wins Rs 50 Lakh Prize
Pune, 22nd November 2025: Innovators from Pune made a strong mark at the Infosys Foundation’s Aarohan Social Innovation Awards 2025, with multiple city-based creators receiving major recognition for their work in education, healthcare and environmental sustainability.
Rahul Suresh Bakare and Vinit Moreshwar Phadnis from Pune won the top honour of Rs 50 lakh for developing ‘Borecharger’, a robotic artificial borewell-recharge system capable of injecting 4 to 80 lakh litres of rainwater into existing borewells annually. The technology is designed to enhance irrigation, boost farm productivity, improve drinking water availability, and strengthen rural water sustainability.
Several Pune innovators also received the Jury’s Special Award, carrying a prize of Rs 10 lakh each. The awardees include Falgun Mukesh Vyas, Neha Panchamiya, Nachiket Utpat, Sowmya S, and Pallavi Kulkarni, honoured for diverse tech-driven solutions with measurable social impact.
Eight Innovators Awarded Rs 2 Crore for Social Impact
The Infosys Foundation — the philanthropic arm of Infosys — announced the winners of the fourth edition of the awards, which were launched in 2018 to support breakthrough ideas aimed at improving lives and empowering communities across India. More than 2,000 entries were received this year.
Category Winners (Rs 50 lakh each)
Education:
Rajesh A Rao, Ravindra S Rao and Deepa L B Rajeev from Bengaluru were awarded for ‘Connecting the Dots’, an interactive learning model offering daily live classes, STEM lab kits, teacher training and scholarships for students in government schools from Classes 6 to 10.
Healthcare:
Chitranjan Singh and Robin Singh from New Delhi won for ‘CLUIX C012’, a portable AI- and IoT-enabled water-quality analyzer that delivers GPS-tagged results for 14 parameters within 30 minutes — making water testing faster, more accessible and affordable in both rural and urban areas.
Environmental Sustainability:
Rahul Bakare and Vinit Phadnis from Pune were honoured for ‘Borecharger’, the world’s first robotic technique for large-scale artificial recharge of borewells.
Jury’s Special Awards (Rs 10 lakh each)
• Sukoon – A digital hybrid cooling jacket designed for workers in extreme heat conditions, by Phalgun Mukesh Vyas (Pune).
• Comprehensive Wildlife Management Platform – A web-based rescue-to-release wildlife data system using a One Health approach, by Neha Panchamiya and Nachiket Utpat (Pune).
• Project Bindu – A remote, tech-assisted work ecosystem enabling persons with disabilities (PWDs) to provide elderly care, backend support and data processing services, by Sowmya S and Pallavi Kulkarni (Pune).
• CERVICHECK – India’s first CDSCO-approved at-home HPV screening self-sampling kit, by Anirban Palit, Dr. Sayantani Pramanik and Palna Patel (Vadodara).
• Hexis & Iris – An integrated learning system for visually impaired students featuring a refreshable Braille display and tactile diagram explorer, by Nagarajan Rajagopal, Vidhya Y and Supriya Dey (Bengaluru).
Infosys Foundation Chairman Salil Parekh said the awards celebrate innovations that turn challenges into opportunities with “ingenuity, empathy and impact.” Trustee Sumit Virmani added that the winners reflect how “ordinary people can do extraordinary things” when driven by compassion and community-focused goals.
