Budding engineers on Tuesday had a taste of what life as a dabbawala in the maximum city is like.
The youths were participating in Robotics Challenge, a contest held as part of Technovanza 2017, the technomanagerial festival of Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute in Matunga.
To win the contest, the competing students from over 150 colleges and 75 schools had to navigate a circuit similar to the one traversed by the city’s 2000-odd dabbawalas to deliver about 200,000 tiffin boxes from homes to offices in the city. In the time-based competition, participants had to help their robots quickly find their way through the maze and reach the destination.
The second day of the fest, based on the theme Catalyzing Innovations, witnessed talks by speakers including Minister of Commerce and Industry Suresh Prabhu, Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy, actor Ratna Pathak-Shah and innovator and education reformist Sonam Wangchuck.
Faruk Kazi, faculty advisor and professor of electrical engineering at VJTI, said, “The idea is to expose our participants not only to technology, but also economics, politics and art.”
Mr. Swamy spoke about the important role innovation plays in a country’s economic development. He said, “Countries that have witnessed a transition from being a developing nation to a developed nation are those that deployed their efforts on innovation.”
He said that the United States, China and India were the only three countries actively engaged in innovation in the world now.
Mr. Swamy said, “India’s biggest challenge is its underutilised capacity. Empowering the youth with a new mindset is key. We need a new mindset. Indians need to develop a taste for taking risks. No risk, no progress. Let me tell you, India can transform overnight.”
