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Srinagar, Nov 08: President Pranab Mukherjee presented Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam IGNITE Awards to the winning children of IGNITE competition organized by National Innovation Foundation (NIF) on 7 November 2016 in Delhi.
A Srinagar girl Zufa Iqbal was among the awardees.
National Innovation Foundation - gives Dr A P J Abdul Kalam IGNITE Awards to students up to class 12th for their ideas and innovations. 30 students were awarded this year out of the over 55,000 applicants from 458 districts of the country.
A young teenager from Bota Kadal Lal Bazar, Zufa Iqbal's idea was a Namda rolling machine. “Since the introduction of manual technique of Namda (woolen carpet) making, there has not been any technological intervention in this regard. The 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,” says Zufa who plans to refine her innovation and commercialise it as a cost- and time-efficient machine.
“My beloved grandfather wanted me to become a doctor. His only dream was to see me wearing that white coat and serve people,” she adds. She claims to be a science fiction lover and loves to write. The innovation by Zufa is seen as a big relief to the people associated with Namda work. Rolling of Kashmiri Namda (a mattress like carpet) is a tiresome job that takes hours and a lot of efforts from artisans.
To overcome this hectic process in its rolling, the innovator has successfully designed a prototype model for rolling and manufacturing a Namda.
The model, Zafa says works on the principle of rotation and relative motion after material is wrapped around the main roller.
“The roller applies pressure on material. It takes just 30 minutes to make one piece of Namda with the machine thus reducing the workload which would take hours. A motor is also attached which rotates the roller,” Zufa said.
“I was watching a programme on TV about Namda work and I saw that everything is done manually for hours. I searched on internet whether any machine is developed for this work. Then idea came to my mind why not to develop such machine which can reduce the work load and time,” she said. Another youth Sheereen Shaikh of Delhi was also among the awardees.
Sheereen Shaikh's idea, a Tiffin box that reminds one to wash hands:
Many times children forget to wash their hands before and after eating food. It obviously affects the personal hygiene and causes possible health hazard. Sheereen developed her idea during a Children Creativity Workshop organised by SRISTI at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, during the Festival of Innovation 2016. Her idea is to get it written on the cover of tiffin box, “wash your hands before you eat food” and on the inside cover, “wash your hands after eating your food”. May be, this is made mandatory to print this line by lunch box manufacturers.
Sheereen has always wanted to be an engineer. She enjoys travelling and is interested in dancing and singing.