DSP Mutual Fund | Garuda Rakshak | 2025
Old technology found a lost child in 5 minutes among 663 million people / DSP Mutual Fund "Garuda Rakshak"
In 2025, 663 million people gathered for India's Kumbh Mela. In past events, more than 250,000 children had reportedly gone missing, some never reunited with their families. In this crowd where even phones barely worked, DSP Mutual Fund and Dentsu Creative India sent up drones shaped like Garuda.
The problem
The festival had been expected to draw 400 million people, but 663 million actually showed up. In a crowd that size, it was only a matter of time before children got separated from their parents. In previous events, more than 250,000 people had gone missing, many of them children.
The insight
In an ultra-dense crowd with no signal, how do you send location data? The answer wasn't the latest technology, but a marine navigation method from the 1970s. By sending offline data under 1 kilobyte, location information alone could get through even in the most crowded spaces.
The idea
The venue was divided into four zones, each with its own drone. Children and guardians were given wristbands, so if someone got separated, all they had to do was tap the band at a Lost & Found center. The drones flew at 80 km/h to pinpoint the location, then raised a colored marker into the sky to signal exactly where the person was.
What happened
Every child wearing a wristband was safely reunited with their family, and 78% were found within five minutes. There are also reports that brand affinity rose by 11% and purchase consideration rose by 7%.
Afterthought
What I love is that inside this new drone was technology from a ship half a century old. Technology doesn't need to be new—it just needs to reach the people who need it. Finding a child in five minutes in a crowd of over 600 million people is already more than enough.
