"One miner dies every third day. A lot of time is lost in miners trying to communicate to the surface during an accident, emergency, or even for quick advice on how to fix a machine," said Priya Ranjan Kumar, founder of Bengaluru-based EasyM2M Technologies, which has tie up with ECL, to introduce underground wifi to its mines and wrist phones to its miners to enable realtime tracking and two-way communication for the miners.

Mines in India, both underground and opencast, generally have just one phone or an intercom device for miners to communicate with the monitoring and control rooms at the surface. But such systems barely work and are not very dependable, said Kumar.

Kumar and his team built wireless mesh networks to provide internet at all times to support the features of SmartKavach. Apart from wifi and bluetooth, the wearable has a gravity sensor that can detect miners falling and being trapped, can monitor and record their GPS coordinates every minute and has a three megapixel camera for video calls.
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Soon, miners will be armed with life-saving smartphones on their wrists with which they can make audio and video calls and alert people when in need of help while at work deep in the bowels of the earth.

A Bengaluru-based start-up, EasyM2M, has designed and manufactured a smartphone watch called the 'SmartKavach' which is actually a smartphone but presented in a simple structure of a watch that will become the miner's best friend. The 'SmartKavach' has a micro sim card slot along with 4GB ROM which can be expandable to 32 GB. It is 3G with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi enabled.

However, the highlight of this smartphone watch's features which makes it useful to miners is the 'Man Fall Down' alert. The 'SmartKavach' is attached via Wi-Fi to the surface office (office on the surface kilometres above them). When a miner is wearing the device and goes underground, his heart rate and blood pressure are constantly monitored. If the person falls, the device waits for five seconds and then alerts the surface office on the miner's plight. If he has met with an accident, immediate help is sent to rescue him.

Priya Rajan Kumar, founder and CTO, EasyM2M, said, "Studies show that every third day, a miner dies in India. One of the major causes for it is not having a facility to make emergency calls. My company will make sure that the Wi-Fi system has the appropriate range and is at all times connected to the 'SmartKavach'. The device is currently being tested; once it is tested for at least six months, we will approach other mines as well to make use of our product."
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In order to facilitate two-way communications between miners and officials of the control rooms at the surface, a Bengaluru-based company, EasyM2M Technologies will introduce underground WiFi facility inside mines and wrist phones for miners to enable real time tracking, according to an ET report.

"One miner dies every third day. A lot of time is lost in miners trying to communicate to the surface during an accident, emergency, or even for quick advice on how to fix a machine," Priya Ranjan Kumar, founder of EasyM2M Technologies, told the financial daily.

EasyM2M Technologies has tied up with the Eastern Coalfields Limited (ECL) to launch the WiFi service and wrist phones. ECL is a coal producer that owns 105 coal mines in the country, the majority of which lie in West Bengal and parts of Jharkhand. Meanwhile, EasyM2M is part of Nasscom's 10,000 startups and TiE, and an incubatee at the International Institute of Information Technology Technology (IIITB).

Mines in India, both underground and opencast, generally have just one phone or an intercom device for miners to communicate with the monitoring and control rooms. But such systems barely work and are not very dependable, said Kumar. Kumar and his team built wireless mesh networks to provide internet at all times to support the features of SmartKavach. Apart from WiFi and Bluetooth, the wearable has a gravity sensor that can detect miners falling and being trapped, can monitor and record their GPS coordinates every minute and has a three megapixel camera for video calls.
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Mining is a dangerous profession with a fatality rate. Everyone involved is aware of this fact – government, mining companies and the miners themselves. 45% of the accidents are due to collapsing mine ceilings, explosions due to methane gas leaks and electricity malfunctions. Moreover, it’s difficult to provide timely medical care to trapped and injured miners. However, little has been done so far to ensure better safety measures or remedy the situation.

The Economic Times reports that Bengaluru-based EasyM2M Technologies has come up with wi-fi solutions and wrist phones to enable real-time tracking of miners and provide them a means of two-way communications. The company has tied up with Eastern Coal Fields (ECL), a coal producer that owns 105 coal mines in the country, mostly in West Bengal and parts of Jharkhand and employs around 4,000 miners. Describing the benefits of its wearable, Priya Ranjan Kumar, founder of EasyM2M Technologies says,

“A lot of time is lost in miners trying to communicate to the surface during an accident, emergency, or even for quick advice on how to fix a machine. Often, miners are trapped for hours when a hazard takes place.They could skype with doctors and get on-demand medical advice when there is no way out. Video calls can be made to the rescue teams within minutes, something that would otherwise take hours.”
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