Lateral Sparks, the weekly quiz from YourStory, tests your domain knowledge, business acumen, and lateral thinking skills (see the previous edition here). In this 256th edition of the quiz, we present issues tackled by real-life entrepreneurs in their startup journeys. What would you do if you were in their shoes? At the end of the quiz, you will find out what the entrepreneurs and innovators themselves actually did. Would you do things differently? Check out YourStory’s Book Review section as well, with takeaways from over 355 titles on creativity and entrepreneurship, and our weekend PhotoSparks section on creativity in the arts. Q1: Workflow Frontline workforce management is ripe for transformation by AI, but is often underserved in enterprise digital initiatives. How can this gap be addressed? Q2: Rural healthcare Many remote rural areas suffer from healthcare problems due to lack of access to clinicians. Just an app will not help here – what is a more effective solution? Q3: Travel Travel planning by organisations continues to be plagued with issues like changing prices and shifting itineraries. How can technology help here? Q4: Flowers Many rural areas are blessed with a plentiful range of flowers. How can the flower market here be enabled for customers across the country, even when the products are fragile and perish quickly? Q5: Waste processing Large volumes of non-recyclable dry waste are being generated in cities every day, leading to problems for municipal collection systems. How can this problem be tackled? Answers! Congratulations on having come this far! But there’s more to come – answers to these five questions (below), as well as links to articles with more details on the entrepreneurs’ solutions. Happy reading, happy learning – and happy creating! A1: Workflow Founded by Krishna Khandelwal and Shantanu Bhattacharyya, Hunar.AI offers specialised AI technology for frontline-intensive industries. It helps HR teams who struggle with high-volume hiring, geographically distributed teams, and language diversity. It has developed conversational AI for candidate sourcing and screening, employee engagement, and worker retention. Read more here about its clients such as Swiggy, Delhivery, Pronto, Blue Dart, Flipkart, Aditya Birla Capital, and Tata Croma. A2: Rural healthcare Founded by Priyadarshi Mohapatra, Shobhan Mahapatra and Sanjay Swain, CureBay operates a technology-enabled rural healthcare network. It combines physical clinics with digital services, via IoT-enablement, AI-powered screening, and a 24/7 command centre. “Rural Bharat doesn’t need another app; it needs a system that works end to end,” says Priyadarshi Mohapatra. Read more here about how it operates more than 250 technology-enabled clinics across seven states, serving over 17 lakh patients. A3: Travel Founded by Arun Bagaria, traveltech startup TravClan is building infrastructure that travel businesses can use instead of having to recreate the entire travel stack. It enables travel agents to plan, price and rebuild complex international itineraries in a shorter period of time. It leverages AI to bring global inventory, booking, and destination fulfillment into one platform. Read more here about how it has 15,000 travel agents as customers, processing more than $100 million in annual travel sales. A4: Flowers Founded by Chokhone Krichena, Dianthe takes Manipur’s distinctive flowers to customers across India while helping rural women earn an income. Value is added by drying the flowers for preserving their beauty, and giving longer shelf-life to flowers such as geraniums and hydrangeas. “Everything is naturally preserved. We shade-dry them and for a few varieties, we sun-dry them,” the ‘Flower Lady of Manipur’ describes. Read more here about how her organisation also uses baskets woven by women’s self-help groups, and eco-friendly wraps instead of plastic. A5: Waste processing Founded by Dhwaj Bagrecha, Neo San processes non-recyclable waste right at the location where it is generated. It has built compact thermal processing units for dry reject, sanitary, and biomedical waste, reducing the need to transport it to distant disposal sites. This Tech30 startup uses rapid, high-temperature electric heating based on induction, which reduces waste to sterile, non-toxic ash. Read more here about its Neo-X wall-mounted unit for washrooms, and Neo-XT for tech parks, small hospitals, and commercial complexes. YourStory has also published the pocketbook ‘Proverbs and Quotes for Entrepreneurs: A World of Inspiration for Startups’ as a creative and motivational guide for innovators.