Diglipur Student brings laurels for Andamans; Receives award from President of India

Port Blair, Jan 05: The National Innovation Foundation-India, Autonomous body of Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India has dedicated this year IGNITE awards in memory of Dr APJ Abdul Kalam so that creative children continue to draw inspiration from his spirit.
Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam IGNITE is a competition of original technological ideas and innovations by children up to class 12 or those out of school up to the age of 17 years.
This year, a total 31 ideas by 41 students of 27 districts from 18 states will be awarded for their ideas/ innovations. Overall 28,106 submissions of students from 425 districts of the countries (from all the states & union Territories) were received during the IGNITE 15 competition, which ran from September 1, 2014 to August 31, 2015.
The awards were presented by the Hon’ble President of india, Shri Pranab Mukherjee on November 30, 2015 at IIM Ahmedabad.
First time a student of Andaman and Nicobar Islands was Awarded by Hon’ble President of India for his Innovation” Solar Pulse Thresher”, Dipankar Das of class 12 of Government Senior Secondary School,Diglipur, North Andaman.
Dipankar’s main subject in school is Political science, geography, Economics and physical Education. When he is not studying, he helps his parents in the farm or prefers making different science models.
“One thing that I fondly remember during making the machine was when my mother used to wake up at around 3 am and find me working on the model. She would insist that I should eat something and get some sleep. Today, she is extremely happy that all my hard work paid off”, says Dipankar, who wants to become a mechanical engineer or a designer of low cost machines.
Dipankar, resident of Madhupur village, used to watch his parents, who are farmers, struggle while harvesting the pulses manually, for him “A solar thresher to end harvesting woes”. According to Dipankar,” Farmers like his parents could not afford a threshing machine or channel electricity to the fields for a rented one. This inspired him to create a solar thresher for efficiently threshing pulses and grains such as green gram, black gram, pigeon pea and horse gram, without using electricity or fossil fuels. He more added that” I have been working on the prototype for the solar thresher for a year. I want to make more farming equipment for my family to make their life easier. We must learn how to channelize our knowledge to real life application,” says the 18 year old who used to study from 7pm to 11pm and then work on his prototype till early in the morning.
His Guide Teacher, Shri. Chanchal Singha Roy, GTT (Science) of GSSS Diglipur,who was also attended IGNITE Award 2015 at IIM Ahmedabad and JNNSMEE has expressed that” Dipankar’s ignited mind always thinking about how he could change the lives of people and to being with, he chose the problem his mother faced persistenly.“
The same working model, selected for participation in the 42nd Jawaharlal Nehru National Science , Mathematics and Environment Exhibition for children, Kerala, organised by National Council of Educational Research and Training, New Delhi.
Recently Dipankar Das was received appreciation letter from Smti. Anandiben Patel, Honourable Chief Minister of Gujarat for his creativity and innovation.
“The recognition I received for my innovation has encourage me to think outside the box. I will work towards finding more creative solutions to everyday problems’, says Dipankar. Principal, Vice Principal, teachers and students of GSSS, Diglipur greeted him on this achievement.
It is strange that the student who has been greeted by President of India, Governor of Gujarat yet to get any recognition from Andaman Administration.