NEW DELHI: Start-ups are immediately identifiable with IT or tech companies - ed-tech, health-tech, fin-tech or some such linked to the corporate world. But have you heard of a startup that has helped farmers with the latest technology for food processing? Or for that matter, promises to ease the storage for fodder and farm produce?

So, how about a start up that has created a range of new building materials out of cow dung that resemble properties of traditional materials such as wood, concrete, wool, and plastic.

‘Ding’ is the name of the product by startup Studio Carbon of young entrepreneur Itika Gupta from Ahmedabad, which can be used in many ways to enhance everyday living.

“The Dungse range has very less carbon footprint, can be manufactured using traditional industry processes and is much lower in cost and completely sustainable and circular,” says Ms Gupta, of the product which earned her an award in 2019 (given in 2020) at the Department of Animal Husbandry’s ‘Start-up Grand Challenge 2019’ in the category of ‘Value Added Products’. After being awarded, she took help of incubation and mentorship offered by the Department, to advance for full-scale commercial production.