Indian firm, another lead by Indian-American among 5 winners of prestigious Earthshot Prize

Singapore, An Indian solar-powered tech venture fighting food waste in the country and a global soil carbon marketplace founded by an Indian-American are among this year's five winners of the prestigious Earthshot Prize, founded by Britain's Prince William and dubbed the 'Eco Oscars', announced here on Tuesday.

S4S Technologies, founded in 2013 by seven university friends Nidhi Pant, Vaibhav Tidke, Swapnil Kokte, Ganesh Bhere, Shital Somani, Tushar Gaware, and Ashwin Pawade, won the "Earthshot Prize to Build a Waste-Free World" category, while Boomitra, founded in 2017, won the "Fix our climate" category. Accion Andina, a community-based programme working across South America to maintain native high Andean forest ecosystems for the tremendous benefits they provide to environment and millions of people in the region, is one of the winners.

The prize went to the Hong Kong-based company GRST for creating a method to make and recycle lithium-ion batteries, while the worldwide non-profit organisation WildAid maritime Programme was recognised for increasing maritime enforcement to halt illicit fishing and strengthen ocean conservation.