The Honey Bee Network, SRISTI and GIAN jointly recognize the creative talent of school going students through an annual competition of innovative ideas/products/processes for improving our life, avoiding waste, generating of saving energy, improving environment, increasing productivity or safety, or increasing convenience. This award is given to commemorate the legacy of Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam, Bharat Ratna and former President of India and a great patron and well-wisher of the Honey Bee Network.
In order to promote creativity and originality among children, students up to Standard XII or the age of17 years, in or out of school participate by sending their ideas, innovations with or without proof of concept or prototypes.
This year in 2021, the Honey Bee Network through SRISTI and GIAN received around 4200 innovative ideas from children in 24 states of India through online and offline media. A jury comprising distinguished experts evaluated the shortlisted ideas and selected 20 innovative ideas for awards and appreciation.
The Members of the Jury included:
– Prof Uday Desai, Former Director, IIT Hyderabad
– Prof P V M Rao, Professor and Head, Department of Design, IIT-Delhi
– Prof Vijaya Sherry Chand, Professor & Chairperson, Ravi J. Matthai Centre for Educational Innovation, RJMCEI, IIMA
– Dr Vishwajanani Sattigeri, Head CSIR-TKDL
– Dr Vipin Kumar, Director and Chief Innovation Officer, NIF
– Prof Kathan Shukla, IIM Ahmedabad
– Dr Taslim Saiyed, CEO & Director C-CAMP, Bengaluru
– Dr Vinita Prasad, CEO REVY Environmental Solutions
– Dr Anamika Dey (CEO, GIAN and Visiting Faculty, IIMA)
– Prof Anil K. Gupta, Founder, Honey Bee Network, SRISTI, GIAN & NIF, and CSIR Bhatnagar Fellow)
Eight students were selected for the award and 12 for the appreciation certificate. The awardees and appreciations were honoured in a virtual function on June 23, 2022, at 4 p.m.
Dr R. A. Mashelkar, Research Advisory, SRISTI Board and chief guest to the function and Prof. Anil Gupta, Founder and Convener, SRISTI graced the ceremony with their presence to support the young scholars.
The award was organized by Honey Bee Network, SRISTI and GIAN.
The list of awardees and appreciations along with their projects can be seen here or click https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1dv5136vBWhljW9DLWql_ZLTICJ_GLzKB?usp=sharing
SRISTI will help in prototype development of the awardees’ innovative ideas. Prof Anil Gupta recalled the support, guidance and encouragement received from former President Late Dr A. P. J. Abdul Kalam for all the innovation related activities. He strongly believed that creative and inclusive minds of children will help India become self-reliant and also a developed country soon. Many of these Innovative ideas don’t address only local problems but also national and in some cases global problems. Most of the students have shown a deep empathy/ “samvedna” about the unmet needs of the society. The jury was particularly impressed with the identification of the problems by the children which in some cases even the grown-ups have missed.
The Honey Bee Network appreciates the efforts of all those who participated in the competition even if award and appreciation have covered only a few. The network site will share all the relevant ideas soon after seeking consent of the children.
Some of the very relevant ideas could not be recognized because someone had developed those already even if many of these were not available in market. We did make an exception in some cases where the societal need is very high and recognizing some of these ideas may draw the attention of designers and policy makers. Help will be provided to the students in connecting them with mentors and fabricators in deserving cases.
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