A number of newborns in the country die due to birth asphyxia, a condition which results from the newborn being deprived of oxygen, or overheating. While there are machines available to keep babies in cool conditions, these cost over Rs. 15 lakhs and are not in stock in most hospitals. This is what led Niranjan Thomas, head of the Neonatology department at Christian Medical College (CMC) in Vellore, and his team to develop MiraCradle, a gel based cradle that provides a smooth surface for the newborn to lie on and helps to bring down the babies temperature, which can shoot up to 37 degrees.

The MiraCradle neonate cooler costs just 1/10^th of the cost of the other coolers, and so hospitals can afford to stock up on more than one cooler.

Source: Yahoo News India