Former President Pranab Mukherjee gave away the 10th Dr A P J Abdul Kalam IGNITE Awards 2017 to 56 creative and innovative students in Ahmedabad on Friday. The competition is organised every year by the National Innovation Foundation (NIF), an autonomous body of the Department of Science and Technology (DST). An exhibition to showcase the award-winning ideas was also organised.
This year, students from 16 states were awarded for their ideas and innovations from the 65,000 submissions received from 576 districts.
Among those present on the occasion were Gujarat Governor O P Kohli, NIF chairperson R A Mashelkar and NIF Executive Vice-Chairperson Anil K Gupta.
The former President said textbooks should include lessons based on the ideas of creative children in different classes. He said ideas about risk taking, developing entrepreneurial ideas for social, economic and cultural entrepreneurship should be shared. Children must be encouraged to think originally about inclusive development of the country, he added.
