Former President of India Pranab Mukherjee gave away the Dr APJ Abdul Kalam IGNITE Awards 2019 to 21 creative and innovative children for their 18 distinct ideas and innovations. The competition is organised every year by the National Innovation Foundation (NIF) – India, an autonomous body of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India. An exhibition to showcase all award-winning ideas by the young and creative minds was also organized on this occasion.

Among the other dignitaries present on the occasion were Acharya Devvrat, Governor of Gujarat, Dr PS Goel, Chairperson NIF, Prof Anil K Gupta, founder, Honey Bee Network, and Dr Vipin Kumar, Director, NIF.

The innovations being recognized this year encompass a great diversity of Science and Technology, be it Vishwa Goswami, a student of UKG from Gandhinagar, Gujarat who gave the idea of “Plate with inbuilt detachable glass” or innovator trio AJ Surya, S Venkateswaran, and Venuram RR from Chennai who gave the idea of “Semi-automatic flower garland maker and packer”.

Over 60,000 submissions of students from 544 districts of all the States and Union Territories of India were received during the IGNITE 2019 competition which ran from September 1, 2018, to August 31, 2019.

Pranab Mukherjee recollected the initiatives like Festival of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (FINE) during this presidency which proved to be an excellent platform for innovators of the country. He remembered India’s glorious history characterized by an emphasis on education through universities and the evolution of social innovations since time immemorial. He appreciated the efforts of NIF in promotion of innovation in the country and shared few areas where he would anticipate more innovations will emerge in the coming days viz. poverty eradication, rural communications, agriculture, animal husbandry, wind energy, and those which would help address the climate change problems.

Dr APJ Abdul Kalam IGNITE competition is a national 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 which is organized by NIF every year to promote creativity and originality among children.