Malav Sanghavi bags the third prize for Babylifebox at the Pitch@Palace competition held at St Jame's Palace in London. Photo: Facebook/Imperial College London

Malav Sanghavi, an Indian student studying in London developed a low cost prototype of a baby incubator that could help save millions of lives, especially in a country like India.

This incubator made out of cardboard called a BabyLifeBox is a boon for a country which is ill-equipped at the grass-root level for neonatal care of premature and underweight infants.

Malav is currently pursuing Innovation Design Engineering (IDE), a Master's dual degree course at the Imperial College London and Royal College of Art.

He bagged the third prize for the BabyLifeBox in a start-up competition held at St Jame's Palace in London.

"BabyLifeBox is a low-cost baby incubator that provides basic neonatal care at grassroots-level. India has highest number of babies dying within the first 24 hours of their birth in the world, more than 300,000 a year," Sanghavi said.

" India has highest number of babies dying within the first 24 hours of their birth in the world, more than 300,000 a year. According to our initial research, we found that India's healthcare service has facilities to deal with a standard birth at sub-centres, primary health centres and community health centres but it lacks infrastructure for neonatal care of premature and underweight infants," explained Sanghavi, a graduate from the National Institute of Design (NID) in Ahmedabad.

Photo: Facebook/Imperial College London Photo: Facebook/Imperial College London

Malav Sanghavi first conceived the idea when his cousin's daughter had to be kept alive in an incubator. While she had access to all the facilities, what got him thinking was the rest of the infants who are born in remote villages across India.

He put forward this idea at the Pitch@Palace event hosted by Queen Elizabeth II's younger son, Prince Andrew - the Duke of York. Pitch@Palace supports UK entrepreneurs by connecting them with potential investors,the theme for which was Internet of things and Smart cities.

He is now looking for initial seed funding to expand his team and bring in more experts on board to develop minimal viable prototypes and start clinical trials



