Kashmiri Girl wins Dr APJ Abdul Kalam IGNITE Award

KL NEWS NETWORK

SRINAGAR

A teenage girl Zufa Iqbal from Srinagar has won the Dr APJ Abdul Kalam IGNITE Award for her innovative idea of Namda Rolling machine.

She received the prestigious award from president of India Pranab Mukherjee. The award function was held at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on November 07, 2016.

The event was organized by National Innovation Foundation (NIF)-India, Autonomous Body of Department of Science and Technology Government of India.

Zufa Iqbal, a class 12th student of Presentation Convent Higher Secondary School, Rajbagh Srinagar was selected for her innovation “Namda Making Machine”.

Since the introduction of traditional technique of Namda (Woollen carpet) making, there has not been any technological intervention in this regard. The machine is the first of its kind for automating the process of Namda production.

Hailing from Bota Kadal, Lal Bazar Srinagar, Zufa plans to refine her innovation and commercialize it as a cost and time-efficient machine, so that it will be fruitful for the end users.

According to Zufa Iqbal, a fan of science fiction, her grandfather wanted her to become a doctor and serve people.

Her Namda Rolling machine is the first of its kind for automating the process of Namda production.

This machine takes almost seven to eight minutes to make a simple Namda. The washing and designing process is also finished within 15-20 minutes.

She had submitted her idea to GIAN/NIF Cell-JK, University of Kashmir.

NIF Cell-JK has been supporting grassroots technological innovations from the length and breadth of J&K State and scores of innovators have been awarded and supported.

Dr A P J Abdul Kalam IGNITE is a National competition of original technological ideas and innovations in which children from any stream up to 12th standard can participate.

Every year winners of IGNITE competition are announced on October 15th, Dr A P J Abdul Kalam’s birthday, which is celebrated as the Children’s Creativity and Innovation Day by NIF-India.

This year, a total of 31 students have been awarded for their ideas/innovations. NIF had received 55,089 submissions from the students from 458 districts of all the states & Union Territories of India were received during the IGNITE 16 competition, which ran from September 1, 2015 to August 31, 2016.

An exhibition showcasing of award winning ideas/innovations has been put up at the venue. NIF will file patents in all applicable cases in the name of the students and will also engage designers/fabricators to develop prototypes of the students’ ideas.