Contrary to common belief, a whiz kid isn’t always the product of world-class education and hi-tech equipment. More often than not, he or she may hail from circumstances surrounding extreme ordinariness, but create an opportunity to build and overcome.
This is the story of 15-year-old A Suryachandra Pavan, a self-taught app developer hailing from a family of modest means, who claims to have developed five apps in a short span f five months and is now working to develop a platform similar to the Google Playstore which will feature all Indian-made apps. His ultimate dream is to create an Indian competitor to take on the world’s most powerful brand Google and in the process, get the ‘Make in India’ slogan louder.
He first got intrigued with the Android world as a 13-year-old and tried his hands in developing apps after watching app developer websites and YouTube videos. He developed his first professional app called Pavan Messenger which had similar features to that of WhatsApp sans the voice and video calling facilities. One of the main features of the app is that it sends files without buffering, claims Pavan.
His next app called Fixus Launcher was a platform that had an easy user interface to search all the apps in the smartphone and also browse the web without using other search engines. While all the apps were initially available on Playstore, he took them off and is now working on creating a similar site of his own.
“If China can develop their own ecosystem of apps by introducing substitutes and encouraged its people to develop their own programmes, then why can’t India too create a platform which will feature all indigenously built apps?” asks the young developer.
Son of a junior assistant of APEPDCL (Andhra Pradesh Eastern Power Distribution Company Limited), Pavan is now working on his app called Pimentobox which has similar features like Playstore.
He even whipped up two educational apps targeting intermediate students, but soon faced his first set of hurdles. “Getting quality study material for the study apps was the big issue. I tried approaching couple of colleges, but didn’t get a favourable response,” he adds.
That didn’t come in the way of his strong resolve. He wrote to the Chief Minister seeking his help and also received a confirmation message stating that his request was forwarded to the AP Board of Intermediate Education. “I don’t want to commercialise the apps. My aim is to provide a free platform for students from where they can get quality study material at the click of a button,” he says.
Pavan’s next major work is on an anti-virus security app which will protect the phone data from hackers. “It is still under developing stage and will take at least a year to be launched,” he adds. His five apps are available at www.techpimento.word-press.com .
