Schoolchildren proved their thorough knowledge in ‘Make in India’ and ‘Digital India,’ the two flagship programmes of the Union government when they participated in the Science Fest hosted by The Hindu in association with Vignan University under Future India Club at Aditya Degree College here on Tuesday.
Be it ‘Budding scientist’ programme in which the students displayed models or the poster designing competition that provided them a platform to use myriad colours to paint their vision on the future India, the young minds proved that their ideas were crystal clear and their knowledge was impeccable when it came to use of digital technology. They minced no words in the elocution competition, where they shared their ideas on how to make India a developed country within a short span of time by making optimum use of available resources. “Now we are using a good number of cards as proof of identity – such as the driver’s licence, Aadhaar, voter’s ID – which is difficult to carry and maintain. We have thought of merging all these cards into one by using the nano chip technology,” said P.B. Bharat Chandra of Bhashyam Public School from the city, who designed the ‘all in one’ card along with his friend N.V.V. Manish and won the first prize in the ‘Budding scientist’ juniors category. The children used the details of various cards of their parents and clubbed them into one chip. “It is satellite-based and the data security is ensured 100 per cent,” pointed out Manish. They were among the 315 students from 25 schools who participated in the three events.
The children who designed models for ‘Make in India’ were aware of the adverse impact of pollutant emissions and focused more on effluent treatment. Energy generation from the emissions and energies was one such idea that evoked good response from the audience, besides impressing the judges. Similarly, they highlighted the need for strengthening the rural India on education and healthcare fronts.
Poster designing
At the poster designing, the ideas of the youngsters transformed into beautiful paintings, where they displayed novel ideas on digital initiatives. “It is not like a competition, but a festival. We are able to meet new friends here and exchanged our details on slam books,” said B. Meghana of Sri Gauthami Smart School, who won the third prize in poster designing.
Teachers and parents, who accompanied the children to the competitions, evinced interest in watching the performance of other participants.
“The IQ levels of the children are quite surprising. They have every information on their fingertips and eloquent in the elocution,” said K. Adinarayana Murthy of Kakianda, whose son Priyatam won the consolation prize.
Municipal Commissioner V. Vijaya Rama Raju, chief guest at the prize distribution function, called upon the children to insist on their parents to open bank accounts for them.
“Entire transactions are going to be digital very soon. Probably, you are the last generation of children who owned kiddy banks.
“The future kids will have bank accounts from their very first birthday,” he said. He presented medals and mementoes to the winners of the competitions along with The Hindu’s regional head S.D.T. Rao, director of Aditya group of educational institutions S.P. Gangi Reddy. College principal Ch. Phanikumar, NSS programme officer G.V.S. Nageswara Rao and representatives of Vignan University were on the dais.
