In a small clinic in rural Bihar, a father once cradled his breathless young son while the lone doctor guessed at pneumonia without any diagnostic tool to confirm it. The nearest testing centre was hours away.

For Tunir Sahoo, then a young student observing the scene, that moment of helplessness would become the spark that redefined his life—and potentially India’s rural healthcare system.

The 25-year-old IIM-Kashipur graduate has now won the James Dyson Award India 2025 for JivaScope, a pocket-sized AI device priced at ₹3,000 that screens heart and lung diseases without requiring a doctor, electricity, or internet.

A device shaped by lived realities

Sahoo grew up far from research labs, studying in Kolkata and Kharagpur before earning a pharmacy degree in Durgapur and completing his MBA at IIM Kashipur. It was during fieldwork across rural India that he realised the extent of a systemic failure—doctors without tools, patients without access, and diseases going undetected until they turned fatal.

The answer, he decided, lay in radically simple engineering.

Building JivaScope: 20 iterations and a single mission

JivaScope went through more than 20 design cycles, oscillating between accuracy and usability before reaching its breakthrough. The team integrated IR-guided placement, ensuring the device automatically positions itself correctly on the chest, making it intuitive even for first-time users such as ASHA workers.

The James Dyson Award’s design-first philosophy pushed the innovation further, compelling the team to merge elegance with rugged practicality.

Offline AI—and why it matters

Unlike digital stethoscopes or telemedicine apps, JivaScope works entirely offline.
“In rural India, internet access is unreliable. An online device would exclude the very communities we wanted to serve,” Sahoo explains.

The team built lightweight AI models that run on-device, delivering instant, clinical-grade screening results in minutes.

Affordability by design

Cost was non-negotiable. “If health workers can’t afford it, the impact is zero,” Sahoo says.

Using off-the-shelf components and lean hardware, he kept the price around ₹3,000 and is now working to bring it below ₹2,000.

Empowering frontline workers

Field trials offered Sahoo his most meaningful validation.
“One ASHA worker told me, ‘For the first time, I can give my patients an answer instead of just referring them elsewhere.’”

For Sahoo, this feedback underscored that innovation is not only about algorithms—it is about dignity, trust, and agency.

The road ahead

Over the next two years, the team plans to scale JivaScope to more than 10 states, integrate with the eSanjeevani telehealth platform, secure regulatory approvals, and expand AI training datasets.

The challenge now shifts from creating the device to integrating it into India’s vast and varied public health systems—a journey requiring partnerships with state governments, NGOs, and health missions.

Here, the Dyson Award serves as a catalyst.
“It gives us visibility, credibility, and access to global mentors. It’s opening doors that make nationwide adoption realistic,” Sahoo says.

More than a device, a promise

JivaScope is a diagnostic tool, but it is also something deeper—a promise that answers need not be out of reach simply because a village is. It turns possibility into accessible, affordable reality.

For millions in rural India, that could be the difference between uncertainty and care, between waiting and knowing, between risk and life.