Among the 31,000 schools of India, a government educational institute from North Kashmir made it to the top-10 list at ‘2022 Youth Ideathon’ for its innovative idea of new entrepreneurship.
The event was held at IIT Delhi in which 91,000 students from elite private and other government schools participated.
Government Higher Secondary School Kreeri in Baramulla from Jammu and Kashmir appeared in the final top 10 list for its startup idea of refining the idea of ‘Portable and low cost apple grading system’.
The Baramulla school is the only government school from across India that appeared in the top 10 list and the rest of the institutes were private-run schools.
One of the teachers of Government Higher Secondary School Kreeri, Javid Ahmad Dar said the idea of refining the ‘Portable and low cost apple grading system’ is of Adnan Mushtaq Lone, Shakir Ahmad Sheikh and Furkan Ahmad Bhat, all the students of 11th standard of the government school.
Dar who was guiding the students at IIT Delhi said, “Think Start-up is an association of IIT Delhi’s alumni. They are grooming the innovative ideas of new entrepreneurs. They have now started to give opportunities to the students of schools from 6th to 12th standard under ‘Mera Idea Jo Badal De Bharat’.”
The association is inviting applications throughout India for the innovative ideas.
“This year 91,000 students of 31,000 private and government schools from across India were the participants of the event,” Dar said.
He said that there were many rounds in the event to reach the final one. In the first round, only students of only 1,000 schools were selected for the next round for their ideas.
Likewise in the next round, there was further filtration and only top 100 ideas were in it followed by 25 ideas in the very next round.
“In the final round, only top 10 innovative ideas were selected from 10 schools and we were one among the top 10 for sharing the idea of ‘Portable and low cost apple grading system,” Dar said adding that “We were the only school from Jammu and Kashmir and the only government schools from across India who appeared in the top 10 and final list.”
He however, said that the project is already in the market but one needs a huge capital for that which everyone can’t afford. “This project cost’s nearly Rs 30-40 lakh but our students have devised a mechanism to lower its cost so that every apple grower can afford it.”
Dar said, “Out students have refined the existing idea of ‘Portable and low cost apple grading system’ and scaled it down to only Rs 40-60 thousand.”
He said, “When our apples compete with the imported apples, we lose our market value because we don’t have a proper grading and proper shining. We don’t wash apples properly for insects and dust and pesticides. The new machine our students have devised at a very low cost will do all these things.”
