Page 32 - EW April 2021

Young Achievers

to drive up yields and productivity,” affiliated Jubilee Hills Public School,
says this aspirant agriculturist. Filmnagar, Hyderabad, Hemesh
Dr. Vinaya Kumar HM, assistant picked up the nuances of computer
professor of agriculture at AAU, programming in class VI. “Jubilee
believes that Radhika will add value Hills Public is a fully-wired school
to the agriculture community. “Rad- which utilises and encourages learn-
hika is very clued-up about the rural ing of new technologies. However,
economy. She debates ground-level the Internet has been my biggest
issues with knowledge and intelli- mentor,” recalls Hemesh, whose list
gence. I believe she has what it takes of innovations includes a roads pot-
to transform into an agriculture en- hole detection system, car accident
trepreneur who will take the nation alert device, robots for the elderly
forward,” says Kumar. and a Smart first-aid kit.
Driven by the mission to revo- Hemesh started ideating his
lutionise agri-farming practices, award-winner smart wristband
Radhika has signed up for a postgrad device because his grandmother
agriculture statistics degree pro- suffered from Alzheimer’s disease
gramme at AAU. “My undergrad de- whose main symptoms are memory
gree which included a year’s intern- loss and confusion caused by pro-
ship with several agricultural firms gressive degeneration of the brain,
including Gujarat State Fertilizer common among the elderly. In India,
Corporation Agrotech Ltd was very an estimated 4.1 million citizens are
RADHIKA GHETIYA enriching. A postgrad in agriculture afflicted by Alzheimer’s and often
lose their bearings and can never be
statistics will equip me with data
analysis and processing skills. India found.
has twice the acreage of arable land Encouraged by his parents and
nand (Rajkot)-based mint as China but only half the produc- using his brain power, this young in-
fresh agriculture science tion. By applying scientific innova- ventor started developing the smart
Agraduate Radhika Ghetiya tions and advanced technologies, device two years ago. “My plastic
(22), has made media headlines we can not only adequately feed all Smart wristband has been approved
in Gujarat for bagging a record Indians but several countries of the by the Bengaluru-based Alzheimer’s
12 gold medals including the vice developing world,” says this young and Related Disorders Society of
chancellor’s best student medal farming entrepreneur in the making. India and the society has asked me
— the highest honour — for her to develop a smaller version so they
performance in the four-year B.Sc Runa Mukherjee Parikh (Ahmedabad) can roll it out nationally,” says this
(Agriculture Hons) final exam. gifted teenage inventor.
The medals were awarded to her Looking ahead, Hemesh is set
at the high-powered convocation upon a career in engineering. “My
of Anand Agricultural University HEMESH CHADALVADA ultimate dream is to become an
(AAU) staged in early February. entrepreneur focused on developing
The elder of two children of emesh Chadalvada is the
Dr. Lalit Kumar Ghetiya, associ- latest teen wonder to join the products and services which will help
vulnerable people in society to better
ate professor of entomology at Hbrigade of celebrated social their lives,” he says with disarming
Navsari Agricultural University, innovators. On the eve of Repub- idealism.
and homemaker Nita, Radhika is lic Day (January 26) this year, the
delighted that history has repeated 14-year-old was among 32 children Krishna Prasad (Visakhapatnam)
itself. “When my father gradu- conferred the Pradhan Mantri
ated from Junagadh Agricultural Rashtriya Bal Puraskar (PM-
University in 1992-93, he was also RBP) award by prime minister
conferred the vice chancellor’s best Narendra Modi in a virtual
student medal,” she says with quiet felicitation ceremony for his
satisfaction. newest innovation — a smart
Although the less preferred wristband which tracks the
choice of school-leavers, Radhika exact location of Alzheimer’s
has no regrets about opting for an patients. The award includes a
agriculture science degree pro- handsome amount of Rs.1 lakh
gramme. “My achievements are an plus a laptop/computer.
appropriate response to all those The younger of two siblings
who mocked my decision to sign up of Kishore Kumar, a sound en-
for agriculture education. Farmers gineer and owner of Technostic
feed the nation. Therefore, it’s im- Creations, a recording studio,
portant that well-educated profes- and homemaker Sandhya, and
sionals enter the agriculture sector a class IX student of the CBSE-

34 EDUCATIONWORLD APRIL 2021