Infosys-EducationWorld Young Achievers 2007The commencement of each new academic year coincides with the disbursal of the Infosys-EducationWorld Young Achievers Awards. Instituted jointly in 2004 by the Bangalore-based ITES (information technology enabled services) and consultancy blue chip corporate Infosys Technologies Ltd (revenue: Rs.13,893 crore in fiscal 2006-07) whose 72,241 employees provide value-added services and business solutions to 864 clients in 22 countries around the world, and EducationWorld (estb. 1999), India‚s pioneer and sole education news and analysis magazine with an estimated readership of over 550,000 countrywide, these annual awards acknowledge, reward and celebrate young achievers in several fields of endeavour ‚ science, maths and technology; arts and music; sport and games; and social (community/environment) service. “The institution of this annual award open to young achievers across the country, is to encourage young citizens to showcase their ideas, aspirations and achievements. Infosys itself is a young company in which the average age of employees is only 26. Therefore we are pleased and proud to be associated with these Young Achievers Awards which reaffirms our belief that there is no shortage of bright young people with great ideas and achievements. Such young people need to be acknowledged and celebrated as they are an inspiration to all children and youth countrywide,” says Kris Gopalakrishnan one of the founder directors of Infosys Technolgies, who recently took charge as chief executive and managing director of this go-getting company which has repeatedly been voted India‚s most respected corporation by business magazines and pink newspapers.Since they were inaugurated three years ago, the response of young India to the Infosys-EW Awards which are widely advertised through direct mail and poster campaigns inviting nominations from schools and colleges across the country, has improved appreciably in terms of quality, if not quantity. “Although nominations for these annual awards have been steady at 400-600 for the past three years, in qualitative terms the nominations received this year were far superior making the job of short-listing the very best for the final round a difficult and testing exercise,” says Syed Sultan Ahmed the promoter chief executive of The Activity (estb. 1996), a Bangalore-based education events management firm which inter alia manages the Horlicks Whiz Kids contest and has choreographed the Infosys-Education-World Young Achievers Awards ab initio. Coterminously with the improvement in the quality of nominations received for the Young Achievers Awards, the evaluation criteria have also been revised and rationalised. In the first two years of the awards (2005, 2006), finalists were separated into senior and junior age groups, but evaluated and adjudicated across all categories of achievement. But following complaints from judges of having to compare “apples with oranges”, this year, nominees were grouped into four separate categories ‚ arts and music, social and community welfare, sports and science and technology ‚ for evaluation. Consequently in the final round held at the Infosys campus on June 14-15, a distinguished panel of judges comprising Dr. Aruna Sunderlal (founder-director of the Bangalore School of Music); Shukla Bose (promoter-chairperson of the Parikrma Humanity Foundation, Bangalore); former Olympics and Asian Games sprint queen turned education entrepreneur Ashwini Nachappa; Dilip Patel (founder-director of The Activty); G.V. Subramanyam (vice-president, Infosys) and Dilip Thakore (publisher-editor of EducationWorld) had the relatively easier task of selecting a winner and runner-up in each category. “The quality and range of achievements of all the finalists was excellent and we had a hard ‚ indeed contentious ‚ job of choosing the winners,” says Sunderlal speaking on behalf of the judges panel. Assurance of a more equitable and transparent evaluation process apart, all finalists were invited (expenses paid) to spend two nights in guesthouses on the state-of-the-art Infosys campus and were awarded handsome gifts and prizes. The winner in each category was awarded a Toshiba Satellite A120 Pro Series laptop computer plus a Rs.10,000 cheque as well as an air ticket for two to Goa (awarded by the Bangalore-based corporate travel firm Lionel India); a CD-ROM version of the complete Encyclopedia Brittanica, and a three-days, two nights ayurvedic holiday package in Palghat, Kerala (courtesy Kairali Holiday Resorts) for two. Moreover all finalists received a cheque for Rs.10,000, the Kairali holiday package plus the Brittanica CD-ROM. The process of selecting and celebrating the Infosys-EW Young Achievers of 2007 concluded on June 15 with an awards ceremony in the famous fully-wired, state-of-the-art conference auditorium of Infosys Technologies. The chief guest at the awards ceremony was Dinesh Krishnamurthy, one of the six founder-directors of Infosys who has played a major role in upgrading the systems and processes of the company to globally admired standards. In a brief but inspiring address to the young achievers whom he lauded for their achievements and their social awareness, he exhorted them to follow the “ABCs of success” as they pursued their aspirations. “The alphabet A represents adventure; B is for belief in your mission; C should remind you of the importance of good character which is a prerequisite of success; D represents the ability to dream big. I won‚t run through the entire alphabet but I will also remind you to associate the alphabet ‚ËœI‚ with innovation which is also a vital pre-condition of success in any field of endeavour. This was the formula which helped us to scale up Infosys into a world-class company in a relatively short time span of 26 years,” Krishnamurthy informed the young achievers, their parents and the sizeable media contingent present at the awards ceremony. India‚s endangered education system exhibits a curious ‚ and perhaps hopeful ‚ paradox. Even as the brightest and best youth of the country are trapped in sub-standard institutions of learning groaning under the tight control of corrupt, inept politicians and a powerful education bureaucracy hell-bent upon micro-managing the system, there‚s a rising tide of demand for quality education within India‚s 450 million children and youth. Therefore despite political inertia and the glaring inadequacies of the education system, a growing minority within the world‚s largest child-youth population is self-studying to succeed and achieve. Perhaps the greatest achievement of the winners and finalists of the Infosys-EducationWorld Young Achievers Awards 2007 is that they have succeeded despite the education system. Their stories and achievements are detailed on the following pages. Arts & Music Athira Krishna Acclaimed worldwide as a south Indian classical (Carnatic) music violin prodigy with over 3,000 concert performances in India and abroad to her credit, Chennai-based L. Athira Krishna (19) was adjudged the Infosys-EducationWorld Young Achiever 2007 in the hotly contested arts and music category. Born into an illustrious family of musicians from Kerala who have achieved considerable success in keeping the south Indian classical music tradition alive for “more than five generations”, this final year sociology undergrad of Chennai‚s Stella Maris College simultaneously charmed and impressed the judges panel with her impressive curriculum vitae and deep knowledge of the Carnatic and western music traditions. “Born into a family and environment steeped in the classical music tradition, I strongly believe that music is a force for global integration because it transcends all boundaries of nationalism, language, religion, caste and gender. I took to music to answer a call from deep within, and not as a path to fame and/or economic safety. And looking back over my career I am even more convinced about the universal healing and harmonious power of music,” says Athira who has conducted music therapy sessions for mentally challenged hospital and cancer patients in Kerala and Chennai.During her brilliant and yet nascent career as a virtuoso violin exponent of Carnatic music, Athira has been conferred 16 international and six national awards including a Guinness World Record citation for rendition of a 32-hour non-stop violin concert (2004); the National Balashree honour as the most creative child musician in India (1999), and was specially invited to perform at the inaugural concert of the week-long birthday celebrations of President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam (2006). Moreover she has represented India in youth festivals in Russia, Kazakhistan, Germany and the Middle East. Athira is also trained in western music and after graduation intends to acquire a Masters in anthropology, specialising in ethno-musicology. “With this academic qualification and by drawing upon the ancient traditions of Carnatic and western music, I intend to adapt the violin to create a new genre of music with global appeal. It‚s an exciting possibility,” she says. Quite clearly the best of this outstanding young achiever is yet to come.Sai Vamshee KrishnaHyderabad-based Sai Vamshee Krishna is only 14 years of age but his curriculum vitae runs into several pages. This accomplished bharatnatyam dancer, orator and film actor, who boasts an incredible 900 stage performances around the world, was the close runner-up in the arts and music category of the Infosys-EW Young Achievers Awards 2007. A class X student of the state board affiliated Brilliant Grammar School, Hyderabad, Vamshee quickly established his reputation as a child prodigy. He gave his first stage performance at the age of three-and-a-half. Simultaneously he started learning the classical Bharatnatyam dance form under the famous Natya Brahma Guru Sri V.S. Rama Moorthy. A year later in 1997, he became the youngest artiste to be appointed cultural ambassador by the government of India when he was selected to perform in Mauritius, on the occasion of the golden jubilee celebrations of India‚s independence. Since then there‚s been no looking back for this child artiste who has vowed audiences in China, USA and Singapore, through his mastery of bharatnatyam. In 2003 at the age of ten, Vamshee became the youngest child classical dancer ever to receive the national Balashree award conferred upon him by President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. “Initially many people criticised my choice of dance form which is usually performed by female artistes. But once I started performing on stage, this gender bias vanished,” recalls Vamshee.His most cherished moment was his meeting with US President George Bush and first lady Laura Bush in Hyderabad in 2006. “I was one of three child artistes selected to welcome President Bush when he visited Hyderabad last year. The president and Mrs. Bush were very appreciative and affectionate, and the president has become my pen pal. My dream is to perform at the White House,” says Vamshee, also a film director who scripted and directed a short documentary Vision 2020 which won him the second prize at the Student Leadership Conference held in the Infosys campus at Hyderabad in 2006.An academic topper who consistently averages 90 percent plus, the young celebrity attributes his success to his parents ‚ father Venkatesh who runs a tutorial school, and mother Aarthi a scientist at GVK Bio, Hyderabad. “I received every encouragement and support from them. Most parents today discourage their children from learning dance and music, saying it‚s a waste of time. But there‚s growing awareness that arts and music education is as important as academics for all-round development. In my case my co-curricular education has proved very valuable. Indeed it has improved my concentration in class and taught me the virtues of hard work, practice and discipline at an early age,” says this articulate young achiever.Science, Maths & TechnologyApurv MishraBhubaneswar (Orissa)-based Apurv Mishra (17), an enthusiastic and socially aware inventor and innovator was adjudged the winner of the Infosys-EducationWorld Young Achievers Awards 2007 in the science, maths and technology category. Although he only recently completed his CBSE Plus Two exams from the DAV Public School, Bhubaneswar, young Apurv who is all set to enter the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune (estb. 2006, a recent Union government initiative to replicate the globally rated Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore countrywide) to pursue his higher education, already has several inventions and innovations to his credit. The most noteworthy among them is the Glabenator patented in India and the US as “an advanced alternative and augmentative communication solution” for disabled people who need support to communicate because of physical and other disabilities. “The device is based on a new concept of directional displacement of a point in the skin just above the eyebrows as a data source. The user of the Glabenator contracts his forehead muscles voluntarily to interact with this device which is simple, compact and comfortable and can make alternative and augmentative communication affordable to the common man in cases of speech and communication disabilities,” explains Mishra. For this socially purposive invention, Mishra was conferred the third prize at the International Science & Engineering Fair (ISEF) 2006 ‚ the world‚s largest science invention and research competition sponsored by the microchip and IT giant Intel Inc. Among his other inventions are a NUAID bottle which enables a person to drink from a bottle through an attachment which prevents water spillage and lips touching the mouth of the bottle; a vibraciodor, a magnetic communicator and hydro-computer. “India is an economically backward country because of a conspicuous lack of an inventions and innovation culture in our institutions of higher education. In this respect the Union government‚s initiative to promote the two new Indian Institutes of Science Education & Research is a very welcome development. I hope these institutes will be more receptive to new ideas and experimentation. It‚s also high time Indian industry became more innovations oriented in the interests of its own survival. The numerous chambers of commerce and industry need to encourage, showcase and debate inventions and inventors much more rigorously than at present,” advises Mishra.Even before entering IISER, Mishra has ambitiously started an internet-based Innovators Factor Foundation whose objective is to link up like-minded innovators worldwide and to provide an interactive forum to showcase and discuss their ideas. And perhaps inevitably, after graduation his ambition is to promote an inventions/innovations company which will derive its revenue from patents and intellectual property rights. “Contrary to popular belief this is a very bankable idea. I will prove that it works,” says this young inventor. Don‚t bet against it!Avinash ChandrashekarAvinash Chandrashekar (17), a class XII student of Chennai‚s highly reputed Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan School, already has seven inventions to his credit. Whether it‚s a simple yes/no switch, an attention-drawing device or a sophisticated multi-lingual aid ‚ all inventions to make life easier for people with disabilities ‚ they are testimony to this young inventor‚s innovation ability and commitment to the cause of challenged people. “I have been associated with special children since I was a child. As such it‚s always been my ambition to harness technology to help them. My devices are simple to use and can be easily operated by differently abled children. For instance my multilingual aid for the disabled helps severely hampered spastic children to communicate their emotions to adults, do simple tasks like write and listen to music,” says Avinash, runner-up in the science and technology category of the Infosys-EW Young Achievers Awards. The multi-lingual aid also won the ‚Ëœbest of subject category‚ award at the Intel Science Talent Discovery Fair in 2005.This inventor with a social conscience took to science and technology at an early age. When he was just 12, Avinash became the youngest student navigator, among eight children chosen from over 60 countries, to work at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) in California, USA, on the Red Rover Goes to Mars Training Mission. “As student navigators we got to debate with NASA scientists on whether life can be sustained on Mars, assembled a toy-rover to navigate the red planet and scheduled a space mission. It was an amazing learning experience,” recalls this articulate Plus Two student who had the distinction of representing India when he was just eight years old as a child ambassador at a Unesco sponsored World Children‚s Summit at Disneyland, Paris in 1998.In 2004, following his visit to NASA as a student navigator, Avinash was awarded a scholarship to attend a workshop at the Space Academy of the US Space and Rocket Centre, Houston. Two years later in 2006, he was selected to represent India at the Global Young Leader‚s Conference in Washington and was awarded a Youth Leadership Award. Given that Mars and all things extra terrestrial captivate his imagination, it‚s no surprise that Avinash wants to qualify as an aerospace engineer to “harness space technology for the betterment of humankind”. Wind beneath your wings!Sport & GamesG. SathiyanReigning under-14 national table tennis champion and class X student of Kola Perumal Chetty Vaishnav Senior Secondary School, Chennai, G. Sathiyan (14) was adjudged winner in the sports category of the Infosys-EW Young Achievers Awards 2007. Sathiyan started playing the game when he was only four and enrolled for his first competitive tournament at age six. Since then he has competed in over 400 local, national and international tournaments and won medals in 120 of them ‚ his most notable achievement to date being the national under-14 title which he won last year. “I owe a great deal of my success to the Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu Chandra TT Academy ‚ a state government initiative in Chennai. Chandra TT Academy has not only provided me excellent coaching under former national champion V. Chandrashekar, but also paid for my participation in tournaments abroad,” says Sathiyan. This young achiever has already won a bronze at the Taiyuan (China) International Junior Open Championship in 2005; a silver at the Canadian International Junior Open Championship (2006) and a gold at the Fajir International Cultural and Sports Tournament in Iran earlier this year.He takes pains to debunk the popular notion that sporting success is inevitably at the cost of academic performance. “Table tennis is not a distraction from studies. In fact the game has helped me manage my time and concentrate better,” says Sathiyan who has averaged 90-95 percent throughout his scholastic career.According to this young paddler, the skills gap between Indian and top-ranked Asian ‚ particularly Chinese ‚ players is not as wide as is popularly believed. “Their edge is in better training facilities and scientific physical training. The coaching facilities in SDAT, the Center of Excellence, Kolkata and Petroleum Sports Promotion Board, Ajmer academies are very good. But they need to be transformed into excellent which can be done at small additional cost. For instance restrictions on the number of balls available for practice should be lifted and a few more practice robots would widen the pool of excellent young players,” he suggests.Looking to the future, Sathiyan‚s sights are firmly set on the 2012 Olympics. “The gap between Indian and Chinese, Korean and Japanese players can be bridged in the next five years if a determined effort is made to improve our physical and mental fitness. I have given top priority to these training aspects to bring home India‚s first table tennis medal from the 2012 London Olympics,” he vows. Power to your elbow!Manthan B. AdigaThe sports category runner-up of the Infosys-EducationWorld Young Achievers Awards 2007 was Bangalore-based five-time national champion distance (1,000-5,000 metres) roller skater Manthan B. Adiga (21). Adiga‚s achievements on the rink particularly impressed the panel of judges because he suffers from congenital macular degeneration, an eye condition which restricts the range of his vision. Adiga, who has won five national, nine state and six district roller skating championships in the under-15 and under-17 categories since he started skating competitively in 1994, attributes his success in this esoteric sport to Bangalore‚s Garden Skating Club where his coaches insisted on training him for competitive roller skating despite his visual impairment. With evident success, because during the period 1994-2004 Adiga participated in 145 roller skating competitions notching up an aggregate tally of 29 gold, 26 silver and 27 bronze medals and represented India in two international meets in Italy (2002) and Belgium (2004).Indeed Adiga‚s achievements are a saga of triumph over adversity. “Due to my eye condition I can‚t see beyond 3-4 ft. Therefore I would do practice runs on championship tracks several times with my coaches before the actual races. Another problem that all roller skaters in India face is that skating rinks are very small compared with the 200 metre rinks abroad. For instance the training rink in Bangalore‚s Kanteerava Stadium is a mere 20 sq metres. Therefore I used to wake up at 4 a.m in the mornings to practice on the city‚s deserted roads,” says AdigaAfter an action packed career as a competitive roller skater, in 2005 Adiga switched to coaching aspiring skaters. “Most Indian children have a natural sense of balance. Therefore they learn to skate very quickly. Given minimal training and rink facilities we could produce world champions. One of my ambitions is to build a skating rink of olympic standards in Bangalore,” says Adiga currently a business management student of Vasavi Vidyaniketan Institute of Management Technology and Research, Bangalore.Social ServiceShravya MallavarapuWhether it‚s the tree planting drive or an anti-plastic bags campaign she initiated in her hometown Hyderabad, Shravya Mallavarapu‚s commitment to envir-onment conservation and upgradation is non-negotiable. A student volunteer/ member of several organisations including the Friendship Foundation, National Green Corps, Blue Cross of Hyderabad and Worldwide Fund for Nature, this 14-year-old‚s passion for eco preservation and improvement persuaded the six-judge panel to adjudge her winner of the Infosys-EW Young Achievers Awards 2007 in the social service category. A class X student of the state board affiliated St. Paul‚s School, Hyderabad, Shravya has taken her save-the-earth message beyond national boundaries. In 2004 she was a Friendship Foundation delegate at the International Children‚s Conference on Environment in Connecticut (USA). The next year she represented India at the International Children‚s World Summit in Japan, where 600 child delegates from over 90 countries participated. Her project report titled ‚ËœCreating an artificial scrub forest eco-system‚ won her accolades at both international summits.”The scrub forests which surround Hyderabad, home to many endangered primates and marsupials, lizards and birds, are facing rapid enqcroachment by farmers and villagers. The rate at which they are being continually cleared, the animals may lose their habitats very soon. My project focuses on the threats to scrub forests and suggests preventive measures,” says Shravya who is also in the forefront of a public awareness drive to stop dumping of plastic wastes into the city‚s show-piece Hussain Sagar Lake.The daughter of a state government transport department employee, Shravya is multi-faceted and has won more than 150 prizes in painting and essay writing, is a trained Carnatic music singer and a blue-belt in karate. In 2006 she won the Amazing Kid Award instituted by Pogo, a children‚s television channel, in the leadership category. This 14-year-old multi-tasker looks to the future with cheerful optimism. She is keen on following in her older brother‚s footsteps into an Indian Institute of Technology. “I‚d like to get into IIT-Roorkee because it has a Himalayan Explorer Club. But my ultimate goal is to start an environment NGO. An IIT degree will stand me in good stead for this very demanding objective,” says the young crusader.<FONT face=”arial, helvetica, sans
Add comment