Prize winner at an event

KOCHI: Pranav Somashekar and his sister Gayatri Somasekhar of Navy children school, Kochi was invited to the event of FINE 2018 at Rashtrapati Bhavan for an exhibition for their innovation of ‘Emergency Light on Two-wheelers’. Pranav of class 12 and Gayatri of class 6 have come up with the idea of installing a system with an emergency light and siren on the two-wheeler. The children suggested that whenever a two-wheeler (for that matter, any vehicle) meets with an accident, an emergency light start flickering along with an alarm so that vehicles approaching the spot could be alerted. They believe even a small step in the right direction can make a huge difference.  

“We saw a lot of accident reports in newspapers and was really moved by it. It was at this point we thought about developing an idea that would help in reducing the casualties”, Pranav said.Recently many cars collided on Mathura road, because they could not see the accident ahead due to fog. This could have been avoided if the idea of Gayatri and Pranav from Naval school, Kochi, Kerala had been implemented in vehicles. 

In most cases of such mishaps, the two-wheeler rider is knocked down and run over by other passing vehicles. Pranav said that the major cause of such accidents is the fact that approaching vehicles are unaware of the mishap that has already occurred. This could be due to speed, bad weather or lack of adequate light. On their idea, Pranav mentioned that it would get activated upon accident and alert approaching vehicles about the same. The system can be connected to impact sensors which will activate the hazard lights even if the engine shuts down, thus preventing the accident “The sound and light would alert all the drivers of the vehicles around the two-wheeler and make them knew about the accident”, he said.

Pranav and Gayatri were awarded the APJ Abdul Kalam Ignite award 2016 for their innovation by the President of India. Pranav wishes to pursue mechanical engineering and considers Dr A P J Abdul Kalam to be his idol. Gayatri, on the other hand, enjoys playing the keyboard and is inspired by Helen Keller.
The Festival of Innovation & Entrepreneurship (FINE) (previously known as Festival of Innovation FOIN) is a unique initiative of the Office of the President of India torecognise, respect and reward grassroots innovations and foster a supportive ecosystem.

This year Festival of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (FINE) was organized from March 19-21, 2018 at Rashtrapati Bhavan by the President & Secretariat in association with National Innovation Foundation-India and Department of Science & Technology. An exhibition associated with FINE remained open from March 19, 2018 -March 23, 2018. FINE is a celebration of country & Innovation potential, particularly thos eideas which stem from grassroots level.