Students’ spirit of scientific inquiry, if imbibed at a young age, can develop ideas and transform lives. This was brought home at the Festival of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (FINE) held last week at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. To create a feeling of celebration of grassroots innovations in the country and transform innovation into entrepreneurship, the earlier Festival of Innovation has now become Festival of Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

About 250 innovative exhibits of school students, grassroots innovators, technology students, entrepreneurs, industry representatives and public sector organisations were on display at the exhibition held on 19 March. As part of the festival, the Gandhian Young Technological Innovation Awards were also presented.

Speaking on the occasion, President Ram Nath Kovind said, “Innovations by themselves are not enough. We need to connect all the links of incubating innovations into enterprises by providing financial, mentoring and policy support.”

Union Minister of Science and Technology and Earth Sciences, Harsh Vardhan, observed that this was a historic occasion when, probably for the first time in the country and maybe the first time in the world, top innovators from informal sector; student from schools and technical institutions; those from the public research and development institutions; from the industry; and entrepreneurs are sharing a platform.

Innovative minds

An overwhelmed student awardee from Class IV, Aparna Chandrasekar, from Chennai, described her experience as amazing. “I am really very amazed and proud of winning a national award which ignited my mind. I am searching a solution for everything and by this, I am learning a lot,” she told The Statesman. Aparna received the IGNITE-2017 award from former President, Pranab Mukherjee, for her innovation “Watch with pungent spray for bullies”. Often facing the problem of bullying at her school, she conceived the idea of a self-defense watch with an inbuilt chilly spray that gets activated automatically. When attacked one’s heartbeat and blood circulation increases, which triggers a sensor in the watch to release the spray.

She described former President APJ Abdul Kalam as her ideal but gave the entire credit for her innovation to Anil Kumar Gupta and his team of NIF, who motivated and encouraged her to participate in IGNITE-2017. She wishes to become a space agent. “I like to be a space agent in India. Because I like to know more about space and work in that area,” she added.

A working model, Solar Wind Hybrid Powered LED Street Light System with Smart Utility Features, by Aryan Arora of Class VIII, Punchkula, Haryana, was showcased at FINE. He got this idea when he was in Class VI and faced frequent power cuts in his area. He explained that Hybrid Powered LED Street-Light makes use of both solar and wind energy and utilises the energy for automatic lighting when dark.

The stored energy can further be utilised for panic or help button, air quality sensor, electric vehicle charging point or smart dustbin supervisor as well. Certificate of Appreciation in 6th National Level Exhibition and Project Competition, 2016, at NPL by CSIR, among the many awards he begged since childhood. “I am inspired by Stephen Hawking and wish to become a Mathematician, Scientist,” he said.

Indrajeet Singh, a Class X student from West Singhbhum, Jharkhand, faced difficulty while cycling in hilly area. This led to the idea of Modified Multipurpose Bicycle with multi-chain system, which uses solar battery with a motor fitted to provide extra power to cycle.

He explained, “A special kind of chain system allows the cycle to move faster with less pedalling. The cycle can also be made portable by adding a foldable function, which is optional. It is affordable yet efficient bicycle for the poor and promotes the use of renewable energy.”

Indrajeet is now studying in Class XI who bagged INSPIRE award 2016, participated SAKURA science exchange programme, Japan 2017 and aspires to become a Robotic engineer, said that his fellow students and teachers were his inspirational powers behind his success.

After reading and hearing about road accidents involving two-wheelers, siblings Gayatri S and Pranav S from Kochi, Kerala, developed the idea of installing a system with an emergency light or siren on the two-wheeler. It would get activated upon accident and alert approaching vehicles about the same.

Explaining their innovation, they said, “Most of the time approaching vehicles are unaware of a mishap that has already occurred — it could be due to speed, bad weather or lack of adequate light. This alerting system can be connected to impact sensors, which will activate the hazard lights even if the engine shuts down.”

Both IGNITE 2016 Award winners, Pranav wishes to pursue mechanical engineering and considers APJ Abdul Kalam to be his idol. Gayatri, on the other hand, is inspired by Helen Keller.

Subash Chandra, IGNITE 2015 awardee from Pudukkottai, Tamil Nadu, has developed a solar-powered seed drill, which can undertake plantation for different size of seeds at variable depth and space. Born into a farming family, Subash understands the challenges faced by farmers.

“Among other challenges, labour scarcity for ploughing, sowing seeds and harvesting is a major issue. One day, while he was sowing seeds, I imagined an eco-friendly seed drill, which can address the issue of labour shortage,” said Subash.

“I want to become a scientist in the field of nature and agriculture and preserve organic farming.” His inspiration for organic farming is Sultan Ahmed, a vermin compost specialist and Dr APJ Abdul Kalam.

The most noticeable eye-catching innovation was e-spoon by Ayush Asthana from Noida, UP, which helps people who suffer with Parkinson’s or any other disease, where a person’s hand remains uncontrollable.

Among other student, innovations was an innovative dustbin by Prem Ranjan Singh, Shivani Singh and Ankush Pal Daman, from Daman and Diu and a device to assist blind people board bus by Ankit Singh, from Bangalore Rural, Karnataka noticeable.