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New Delhi: A Class 12 student from Delhi has developed a portable eye-screening kit that has reportedly reached nearly 22,500 people through community health camps and nonprofit-led programmes.Aditya Gupta, a student at Springdales School, Dhaula Kuan, developed NetraKit after volunteering with the National Association for the Blind and observing barriers to eye-care access in underserved communities. The low-cost, 3D-printed device is designed for preliminary vision screening. The project won third place nationally at Seed the Future Entrepreneurs, an innovation competition organised by Dassault Systèmes in collaboration with NITI Aayog’s Atal Innovation Mission. Gupta received Rs 22,000 in seed funding from Dassault Systèmes, raised an additional Rs 22,000 independently and later received Rs 56,000 in prize money. Gupta initially deployed four kits through nonprofits Sugam Jagruti and Ek Prayas, conducting around 50 screening camps that reached nearly 10,000 people.The device was subsequently evaluated on 225 participants, with reported accuracy of 91.6% among adults and 97.2% among children. The evaluation methodology and independent validation would be important in assessing these findings. To expand deployment, Gupta provided six kits to Indigo Knowledge Prism Foundation and trained five facilitators. The programme reached approximately 9,500 students across 48 villages in Haryana. Two more kits were provided to The Creative Thinkers Forum, which used them in health camps reaching more than 3,000 people. Gupta has initiated the patenting process with legal counsel from Khaitan & Co. NetraKit is intended to identify potential vision problems, not replace clinical diagnosis or professional eye examinations. Its wider impact will depend on screening reliability and whether people identified as needing care can access follow-up services. The project has progressed from a student innovation competition to community deployment, with Gupta now exploring partnerships to expand its reach.
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