Global Indianstory Global Indian ExclusiveAkash Manoj: Innovator develops revolutionary device for silent heart attack detection

Akash Manoj: Innovator develops revolutionary device for silent heart attack detection

Compiled by: Team GI Youth

(December 9, 2023) At 13, Akash Manoj lost his grandfather to a silent heart attack. Despite being a diabetic and someone with high blood pressure, he was a healthy person. But seeing him collapse and die, owing to a silent heart attack is one of the most heart wrenching moments for him. “Silent heart attacks happen to people who have underlying conditions like diabetes and these patients have nerve damage that blocks out all the alarm signals that the heart is sending,” Manoj explained in an interview. That’s when he began research in the space as he decided to go on war against a deadly killer as it becomes fatal for patients without any noticeable symptoms. Moreover, the silent heart attacks account for 50 percent of all heart attacks across the globe, and more than 8 million people die each year due to silent heart attacks. “I took time off to read as much as I can on the heart during my school. I was just wanting to find a solution.”

Akash Manoj | Global Indian

This prompted him to work for three years with varied government and private labs to come up with a skin patch that can detect a silent heart attack six hours before it happens. His breakthrough innovation – which could revolutionise healthcare – won him an award at Intel ISEF 2018 and has received clinical validation from the Tokyo University of Science, London’s Royal Society of Medicine and Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences.

“It is a watch-like device that you wear around your wrist and place a patch near your chest. The non-invasive device will identify the alarm signal your heart is sending through a unique bio-electric system that I have developed so you don’t need a blood test at all,” Akash, who is the President’s Gold Medal recipient, had told in an interview.

The patch work emits a small amount of positive charge, which attracts the negatively-charged FABP3 protein, a biomarker for heart attacks. If analysis shows an increased level of the protein, a heart attack is underway.

Akash Manoj receives Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar

Akash, who calls himself a cardiology researcher, uses a cardiac biomarker called heart-type fatty acid binding protein in his preventive technology “which is released up to six hours before a heart attack, thereby giving us a way for early detection. If the levels are beyond the recommended threshold, that would mean you are at risk of a potential heart attack, so you need to rush to the doctor for immediate medical care”.

The student at medical school in Prague, Czech Republic began studying on the subject in school after his grandfather’s death. He was in eighth grade when he started visiting the library at the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru, which is quite from Hosur, his hometown in Tamil Nadu. But he was determined to understand more about the heart and find a solution. “Journal articles are expensive, so visiting the libraries was the only way I could do it. Otherwise, it would have cost more than a crore (of rupees) for the amount I read. I was always interested in medical science and I liked reading the journals…cardiology is my favourite,” he told a daily.

After years of research, he made a breakthrough with a non-invasive device which is inexpensive, portable and wearable by at-risk patients at all times. “It requires no blood test and works 24/7 collecting and analysing data at preset intervals, he said in a TedTalk.

The device is being tested on patients with health issues. “We have seen positive results so far, but any tangible conclusions can only be made after the study has been completed,” Manoj said, adding that the device might be available in the market in the next few years. “I am also working with key stakeholders in the wearables industry to integrate this system into watch-like wearable devices,” he said.

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Published on 09, Dec 2023

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The Indian defense: The young grandmasters on the world chess circuit

(October 20, 2022) It's what journalist Chidanand Rajghatta aptly describes as 'the gold rush in Indian chess'. Teenage grandmasters are taking the global chess stage by storm, putting world champion Magnus Carlsen to shame over and over again. From the wide-eyed Praggnanandhaa to Arjun Erigaisi, D Gukesh, and Vidit Gujrathi, the Indian contingent is stronger than ever before, drawing admiration from within the country, and outside. All three teenagers have enjoyed an outstanding run in 2022, their victories over Carlsen being the highlight of their growing list of accomplishments. "I think it just shows that Arjun and Gukesh are very, very strong players who can compete well against whoever is sitting on the other side of the board," former five-time world champion Vishwanathan Anand said, commenting on the Indian cohort's performance in the Aimchess Rapid in October. Global Indian takes a look at young champions who are making India proud on the world stage. What's the point of playing chess, one might ask. Does being able to strategise across the board make a difference to society? Just like anybody else with a purpose or a passion, India's young grandmasters have made enormous sacrifices, showing great clarity of thought as they make life-changing

ung grandmasters have made enormous sacrifices, showing great clarity of thought as they make life-changing decisions, like quitting school, for instance, to choose their passions. D. Gukesh and his father have slept in airports - the teenager who stunned Magnus Carlsen has played himself to the point of exhaustion. Arjun Erigaisi decided at 18 that college wasn't for him. Entering the elite rungs of chess has meant hard work and single-minded passion for each one of the Indian stars.

Arjun Erigaisi

In 2021, Arjun Erigaisi made history when he became the first Indian to enter the quarterfinals of the Goldmoney Asian Rapid online chess tournament. He was the lowest-rated player when he entered and took on Levon Aronian (to whom he lost in the Aimchess Rapid after beating world champion, Magnus Carlsen). It was a magnificent show of talent - the 18-year-old proved himself against champions like Wesley So, Saleh Salem, Carlsen, and Anish Giri, to finish seventh.

Erigaisi, who lives in Hanmakonda with his family, was 13 years old when he qualified for the World Youth Championship in 2016. The youngster had begun training at the Race Academy in Hyderabad. In 2021, after the World Rapid and Blitz didn't go his way, he knew it was time to make a choice. Erigaisi told his parents he wanted to quit college and requested their support. It was a life-changing decision in more ways than one and Erigaisi embarked on one of the best years of his chess career.

He began 2022 by winning the Tata Steel Challengers event with one round to spare, reaching a draw with the Czech Republic's Thai Dai Van Nguyen. He was the fourth Indian to win the event. Even Magnus Carlsen, who doesn't always concede with grace, had words of praise for the young teen, saying, "He is by far the best player (in the Challengers) and plays chess in a way that I enjoy.” In August, he also bagged the top spot at the 28th Abu Dhabi Masters (six of the top 10 spots went to Indians), going on to defeat Magnus Carlsen in October 2022 at the Aimchess Rapid, before losing out in the quarterfinals.

D. Gukesh

In October 2022, at the Aimchess Rapid, Donnarumma Gukesh made history, becoming the youngest player to beat the world champion, Magnus Carlsen. The 16-year-old, who was playing white, defeated the Norwegian champion in the 9th round, breaking Praggnanandhaa's record by a hair. Surprisingly, the prodigy said in his post-game analysis, "Beating Magnus is always special, but I was not very proud of that game." For a while, it looked as if Carlsen had the upper hand, only to have the tables turned by the gifted teenager.

When Gukesh's father, Rajnikanth, noticed his son's passion for chess, he remembered his youth. He had been an avid sportsman, playing cricket in school and making it to the state selections. His parents, however, wouldn't hear of it, ensuring their son studied hard and became a doctor. So, when Gukesh made his passion known, he would come home from work, put his sleeping son into the backseat of the car, and drive all night across Tamil Nadu to take him to a chess tournament. "We would finish, I would put him in the car and drive back, then go to work on Monday." When Gukesh began receiving invitations to compete at larger tournaments, his father closed his clinics and devoted himself to his son full-time.

Prolific and single-minded

Gukesh is single-minded about the game, showing little interest in other matters. For his father, there's no debate whatsoever. "Let him choose," he said, in an interview with ChessBase. "It's not my decision. I could see his heart was in the game. My wife and I always needed to sit with him for his schoolwork but when he saw a book on chess or the board, he would put in everything he had."

He's also one of the most prolific players in the circuit. In 2021, soon after the pandemic, he played over a dozen tournaments in Europe in around four months. In 2021, when pandemic restrictions were still in place, Gukesh and his father booked one-way tickets to Europe. After the Portugal Chess Tour, they received an invitation from the European Club. Then came the Bulgaria Rapid and FIDE entered Gukesh as a wild card for the Swiss Grand Prix.

Gukesh and his father have often slept in airports as well. "We didn't have any kind of lineage or background in the game, we were ignorant of how things were done and I guess that worked out well," his father said. "If I see a good tournament, I can't resist. He also wants to play. If a month passes without a tournament, he starts nagging me. He wants to play too, so I say yes."

Vidit Gujrathi

Out of the five Indians invited to the Aimchess Rapid online tournament, Vidit was among the three who made it to the quarterfinal. He attained the Grandmaster title in 2013 and in August 2022, was the fifth highest rated player in India, after Viswanathan Anand, Gukesh D, Arjun Erigaisi and Pentala Harikrishna. Born in Nashik, Vidit began training from a young age, finishing second at the Asian Youth Championships in the U12 category in 2006, becoming a FIDE Master as he did so.

When he was around six years old, Vidit was taken to the gymkhana to sign up for an afterschool activity. He chose chess, which he had already played with his father. "The first thing I learned at the class was king pawn versus king and how to win this position," he tells ChessBase India. By then, he was already familiar with how to move the pieces. "I liked cricket but I was too young, so chess happened."

Part of the elite

Vidit stole the spotlight in 2019, when he beat Vladimir Kramnik and Shakriyar Mamedyarov to become one of four Indians to win the Tata Steel Chess Tournament. By the age of 14, he had become an International Master and four years later, was a Grandmaster. "I was 18 when I became a GM and until the age of 20, I stayed at the rating of 2650, which is decent. But I felt like I was stuck there," he told Scroll.in. At that point, he began working with another elite player, Anish Giri, calling it a "game-changer because I started to realise how top players really work." Being an elite GM, he says, means living at a different scale. "They have regular training camps and get lots of funding. They have a team, which is different from working alone or with just one coach."

His motivation comes from playing the other stars. "It gets my adrenaline flowing," he said in the interview with Scroll.in. "I know that I will improve if nothing more. Also, there is no pressure for me when I play good players. If I face Carlsen, there is no pressure, on the other hand, if I face some prodigy, then I have nothing to gain from it. But I still motivate myself. When I play Praggnanandhaa, for example, I am extra motivated. I want to get the edge and keep it."

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Empowering voices: Author Malavika Kannan aims to put the spotlight on brown women

(April 19, 2024) From the age of ten, while her Indian American peers discussed aspirations of becoming doctors or engineers, Malavika Kannan held a clear dream of becoming an author. And in 2020 at the age of 18, her dream finally came true with the release of her debut novel, The Bookweaver's Daughter. The award-winning book is inspired by Indian mythology and a younger Malavika's view on female friendship. It follows a 14-year-old girl with magical abilities who confronts the tyrannical ruler of the fictional realm of Kashmiri. Inspired by writers and thinkers such as Arundhati Roy, Zora Neale Hurston, and Amiya Srinivasan, the writer has penned another novel All the Yellow Suns, which was released in 2023. Currently an undergraduate at Stanford University, Malavika recently added another feather to her already colourful hat by winning the prestigious Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans. "I really do think stories have a lot of power to impact the way we discuss issues, power, and the way we centre people in conversations. I want to use storytelling to address a lot of issues that are faced by brown women, young women, and queer women," shared the author during a recent

nk stories have a lot of power to impact the way we discuss issues, power, and the way we centre people in conversations. I want to use storytelling to address a lot of issues that are faced by brown women, young women, and queer women," shared the author during a recent interview.

Connected to her roots

Born in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, the author grew up in Central Florida in a tightly-knit community of Indian immigrant families. Her parents both emigrated from South India in the 1990s, and Malavika’s earliest memories include regular visits to the public library with her parents, putting on ridiculous plays with her sister, and listening to stories of Indian mythology from her grandparents.

"I clearly remember that being an author was the only dream I had, ever since I could even dream," laughed the author, adding, "We would visit my grandmother during summers in India, and she would tell me a lot of stories—Indian mythology and other folklores. And I was so fascinated by it. Before I learnt how to write, I remember telling my mom stories, and she would write them down for me."

Interestingly, the idea of her first book - The Bookweaver's Daughter - came to Malavika when she was still in school. "I had the idea for it when I was 12 years old. I also wrote a version of the book in high school, when I was in the middle of my Young Adult fantasy reading phase. It’s ultimately a story about a girl who’s trying to unlock her powers - about how language and storytelling can be used as a force for change. And I’ve placed her in this world of ancient Indian mythology, which had the characters I grew up reading and loving as a kid," shared the Global Indian.

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An activist

Growing up in Florida, Malavika, like many others her age, witnessed the effects of gun violence, police brutality, and racism in her community. At the age of 16, she had her first distinctively American experience when she and her high school peers coordinated a school-wide walkout to protest gun violence. Throughout her teenage years, Malavika actively worked with organisations such as March For Our Lives, the Women’s March, and Giffords to advocate for safer and more equitable communities.

The author's early involvement as an organiser deeply shapes her approach to writing, which she sees as both politically charged and community-driven. Through her work, she explores themes of identity, culture, and politics, contributing to publications such as The Washington Post, Teen Vogue, Refinery29, and The San Francisco Chronicle. With an online following nearing 50,000, her writing resonates widely.

"I want to amplify people who are doing the frontline work of eliminating these issues, and also support them," shared the author. "I want to talk about unspoken power dynamics in our society. I want to talk about how systemic issues can affect one person in the course of their own narrative journey. We as a community can directly take care of each other without having to wait for the government, an election, or a march. We can just do it ourselves."

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A long road ahead

A senior at Stanford University (batch 2024), Malavika has delved into creative writing, South Asian studies, and women’s literature during her academic journey. Graduating with a BA in comparative studies in race and ethnicity, the author has submitted two honours theses: one exploring Dalit women’s environmental writing and the other a literary novel depicting college student during the pandemic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63sZzu0gz3w

"I'm looking to further refine my literary skills by pursuing an MFA in fiction. My goal is to become both a novelist and a literature professor," shared the author, who is grateful for the opportunities she has received, aims to continue representing queer brown girls in narratives and hopes to make her family proud.

Follow Malavika Kannan on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook

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Krrish Chawla: Stanford University student making clean air accessible

(March 15, 2023) Being surrounded by nebulizers and inhalers during Diwali has been one of the core memories for Delhi-born Krrish Chawla while growing up in the capital. As someone who battled respiratory problems throughout his childhood, the 20-year-old was always surrounded by air filters to enhance his breathing. This propelled him to find a solution for many like him, who were facing similar issues. "Being curious as a kid, I was just 14, when I dismantled a purifier inside my home to discover a very simple working design. However, I was taken aback the moment my father told me about its exorbitant price. With a strong resolution that breathing pure air is not a luxury but a necessity — I decided to build one myself," the Stanford University student said. Being a science student, he was well aware of the operations of an electrical circuit and soon started experimenting with different prototypes. It took him 320 prototypes to finally come up with a commercially viable model - "with a focus on delivering maximum efficiency at the most economical rates." This gave birth to Breathify in 2018 - an air-purifying device with an innovative ‘Reverse Air’ technology. "My parents helped

"with a focus on delivering maximum efficiency at the most economical rates." This gave birth to Breathify in 2018 - an air-purifying device with an innovative ‘Reverse Air’ technology. "My parents helped me immensely during the initial days. With the help of my father, I was able to innovate and design a technology called 'reverse air'. It essentially reverses the components used inside the device to reach maximum filtering efficiency," he added. In simple terms, the technology reverses the direction of airflow, thus eliminating any scope of air-mixing with surrounding pollutants.

Made of eco-friendly components, the air purifier is 99 percent plastic-free, uses a HEPA filter that can trap 99.97 percent of ultra-microscopic particles, and is available at ₹4230. "It is a simple plug-in-play operation, consuming 25-65 watts of electricity. The only maintenance is to change the HEPA filter," he told HT.

Being a teenager when he made the device, Krrish had to face many challenges, but for him, the prime struggle was to convince people about the simplicity of an air purifier. "I did several demos in front of people showing them the efficiency of my device. Since childhood, I was deeply inspired by minimalism. I believe that instead of incorporating a lot of complexity inside the machine, we should focus on a simple design to boost functionality," the Global Indian said.

The startup began with initial financial assistance from his father and later, he invested the profits from new orders. "I learned on Google through research and experimentation. The challenge was to understand the airflow and correct it as required,” he said. Breathify has till now helped improve the lives of over 48,000 people and has reached more than 12000 users in India.

Krrish, who is currently pursuing Computer Science at Stanford University, is an avid photographer and a national-level golfer. He is constantly striving for social upliftment, making positive differences in the world – a step at a time. A common aim of all his projects is environmental sustainability, which he hopes to achieve in the near future.

Follow Krrish Chawla on LinkedIn

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Eighteen-year-old prodigy Janhavi tells it like it is, in nine accents

(May 19, 2022) Having completed her senior secondary school at the mere age of 13 Janhavi went on to become a 16-year-old graduate after finishing her undergraduate studies at Delhi University. The prodigy from Samalkha, a town 19 km south of Panipat is popularly known as the ‘wonder girl’ for not only her academic accomplishments but also her ability to speak English in nine accents – British, American, Polish, Received Pronunciation, Canadian, Scottish, Australian, Norfolk, and Cockney. [caption id="attachment_16891" align="aligncenter" width="552"] Janhavi Panwar[/caption] Raised in a traditional Haryanvi environment, Janhavi's abilities are mystifying. She takes a more down-to-earth view, however, saying they have nothing to do with the “inborn skills” that people believe she possesses. “Good parenting and my own curiosity led me to explore different aspects. Developing my skills came from practice,” she states, in an interview with Global Indian. She did, however, show prodigious capabilities, even as a baby. “At the age of one-and-a-half, my vocabulary consisted of 500 English words.” The dream that came true Growing up, she learned of her father’s struggles to find a job. A highly erudite man – a double MA and an MPhil, which he possessed, made him stand out in the small town

with Global Indian. She did, however, show prodigious capabilities, even as a baby. “At the age of one-and-a-half, my vocabulary consisted of 500 English words.”

The dream that came true

Growing up, she learned of her father’s struggles to find a job. A highly erudite man – a double MA and an MPhil, which he possessed, made him stand out in the small town he called home. Still, work was never easy to come by, especially in Delhi-NCR, “as his communication skills in the English language weren’t so good, despite him knowing the subject,” Janhavi explains.

Deeply let down by the rejections, he made up his mind that his own children wouldn’t suffer like him. He decided they would be well-versed in spoken English, to thrive in a society where the language is so revered.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGBmnvDXIyY

“When I was born, I became a means of experimentation for him. He started working on developing my English skills, right from the beginning, making sure that I converse in no other language with him,” she says.

Skilling up

“YouTube has played a big role in helping me master the accents,” she remarks. “I am studying phonetic transcriptions now in my master's but have learned and practiced accents through phonetics transcriptions a long time ago,” says the former student of Asha Deep Senior Secondary School. By the age of nine, she would spend hours practicing her accents in English, even though the medium of learning at school was either Hindi or Haryanvi.

Her father, Brij Mohan is now a government school teacher while her mother Sanjana teaches in a private school. The ‘wonder girl’, who graduated with an undergraduate degree in English literature from DU, is about to finish her master's from Kurukshetra University. “I enjoyed my time as a DU student, organising elections and being the Delhi University Student Union (DUSU) spokesperson. I did want to do a master’s in the UK but the pandemic messed up my plans,” she says.

Getting into the crux 

Janhavi tends to immerse herself completely into anything she sets heart on to achieve. These days, she spends her time in the library but her perfectionist streak has always been with her. Growing up, she would spend hours as a six-year-old watching YouTube videos and English news channels. She would work constantly on polishing her accents, refusing to go to bed until she got them right. In fact, she wouldn’t sleep until every item on her to-do list was ticked.

[caption id="attachment_16893" align="aligncenter" width="770"] Janhavi with her father and foreign tourists to India[/caption]

Frequent travels to tourist spots like Red Fort, India Gate, and Taj Mahal to meet people of different nationalities was part of the training regimen set by her father. “The foreigners’ accents would intrigue me,” Janhavi recalls. “By the time I was nine, I was watching BBC and CNN and mimicking the anchors.” Not only was she blessed with an ear for accents, she had a photographic memory too. “If you play two television channels simultaneously, with different news programmes happening, I can repeat both the reports entirely, in the respective accent, even weeks afterwards. I can enter a flashback and recall the details.” No wonder, then, that the prodigy appeared for her class 10 board exams when she was 11!

 The milestones…

Now at 18, Janhavi is set to finish her master’s progamme in English literature and is a sought-after motivational speaker who has conducted numerous sessions over the last five years. She had given her first motivational speech at the Bombay Institute of Public Administration to an audience of 150 IAS officers. 

Janhavi finds non-STEM subjects her true calling, even when at the age of 10 she was not only a student of class 10 but also helping her classmates with their science lessons. “To appear in the board examinations at that age became possible after a meeting with the then CM of Haryana, Bhupinder Singh Hooda who after talking to me for more than an hour permitted me to appear for the exams under the Haryana State Board of School Education.” Due to her ability to grasp quickly, she has completed two classes in a single year finishing the syllabus of each class in six months flat.

[caption id="attachment_16895" align="aligncenter" width="778"] Janhavi being honoured by Governor of Haryana and Punjab[/caption]

Even when she took her standard 12 board exams in humanities, Janhavi finished her study of non-medical science syllabus out of love for garnering additional knowledge.

Active in motivating

The avid reader of autobiographies, books on the conscious mind, and spirituality started getting recognized for her insights at the age of 13, receiving invitations for giving motivational speeches, and for conducting sessions and seminars. “I have trained staff of MNCs in metros, and government institutions apart from students of several educational institutions,” she informs.

The youngster, who once wanted to be an anchor, was invited to BBC’s Delhi office for an interview. “The anchor said, ‘if you want to join BBC, the door is open for you’,” smiles the wonder girl, remarking “Now I want to take up entrepreneurship in the training space, once I finish my Ph.D. in English literature.” 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9Dyuv-TpDM

With too much on her plate at the moment, she plans to write a book sometime in the future. For now, the prodigy has been relishing the pleasure of being an English songwriter, singing her songs. Through her YouTube channel, which has eight lakh subscribers, she has been on a spree of creating motivational videos for people so that they touch the highs of their lives and combat their lows successfully. “My curiosity keeps me going. Waking up and doing something new each day keeps me ticking.”

“When I am with friends and relatives, I am a different person altogether. I talk with them in Haryanvi with a pure Haryanvi accent, and prefer not to show the other side of my personality,” says the prodigy who is an inspiration to her younger sister, Saanvi.

Follow Janhavi Panwar on Youtube, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram

Reading Time: 5 mins

Racing to put Indian motorsports on the global map – Arjun Maini, Yash Aradhya & Karun Chandok

(December 31, 2021) The news of the first all-Indian team to compete internationally at the 2021 Asian Le Mans in February sent ripples of anticipation among Indian racers. The all-Indian driver line-up of Narain Karthikeyan, Arjun Maini and Naveen Rao came in fifth place, and spurred the racing aspirations of many. New technology, new drivers, and hopefully more corporate involvement are what we can expect in the future. We need to break away from cricket being sold as the only sport in India. - Gaurav Gill Of course, the memory of Formula 1 great Michael Schumacher wheel to wheel with Jean Alesi in a tarmac crunch to the chequered flag at the 1995 Europe Grand Prix, is still among the most memorable moments for racing aficionados, etched in many minds. Finally, India too has taken to a sport that is not cricket. Many youngsters are training, learning and being mentored to be the next Schumacher (or close), and it is a sign of the growing popularity of motorsports in India. Ten years after that 1995 scene, Coimbatore-born Narain Karthikeyan scripted history by becoming the first Indian to debut at Formula 1, inspiring the current generation to get behind the wheel

a 1, inspiring the current generation to get behind the wheel of a mean machine that can go insanely fast around a corner.
The adrenaline rush, blind cuts, and need for speed keeps every racer revving. However, the lack of sponsors and expensive gear often play spoilsport, thus nipping many dreams in the bud. Perhaps, this most expensive sport in the world is finding stable footing in India with a handful of young Indians revving up at the start line, and pushing the gas pedal on greater accomplishments.

The young blood

This October, the 23-year-old racer Arjun Maini became the first Indian to make a podium debut at the DTM Championship after claiming second place at the Norisring (Nuremburg) race circuit. “For me, it was a very special moment to be the first Indian driver in DTM and I am very proud of it,” tweeted Maini.

Arjun Maini, the Bengaluru boy started with go-karts when he was eight, thanks to his racer dad Gautam Maini, who once participated in the national championships. It was in 2011 that Arjun Maini made headlines when he won the Sahara Force India’s One from a Billion talent, and since then there has been no looking back for this lad.

If Arjun Maini is vrooming through unchartered territory with each of his races, his younger brother Kush Maini, too, is busy taking the legacy forward as he made his debut at the World Endurance Championship in Bahrain this year. Following the footsteps of his brother, the 21-year-old began his journey with the national karting championship before graduating to cars in 2015. In no time, he made waves in the European racing circuits by competing in the Italian Formula 4 championship, and British Formula 3 championship. However, it was this year’s Formula 3 Asian Championship where his team Mumbai Falcons did the unthinkable by clinching a third place at Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi. “The year 2021 Asian F3 Championship has not been the smoothest of rides, had a lot of engine issues throughout the campaign and some unlucky moments but all the credit goes to @mumbaifalcons who never stopped believing in my capability and we finished off the championship strong with a podium. A historic moment for Indian motorsports and it’s been a pleasure to be a part of it,” he wrote on his Instagram after the historic podium finish.

A universe of opportunities

If the Maini brothers found inspiration through their father, 19-year-old Formula 4 racer Yash Aradhya’s love for motorsport stemmed from his need for speed. The recipient of the Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar, Yash’s passion began at nine years of age, and despite no family background in motorsport, the teenager dived into the game out of sheer love. “I started with karting and here I am,” the Bengaluru-born teenager tells Global Indian Youth.

Each year, new names crop up, and sponsors are at the heart of this expensive sport, and a deep bank balance too. “Motorsports is an expensive sport but I wouldn’t say the same anymore as opportunities are being given at the grassroot level. You have a chance of being picked up and taken forward as long as it’s backed by the performance that helps the sponsors and investors put their faith in you,” adds Yash, who has dreams of becoming a Formula 1 racer.

It’s been a decade since Indian racer Karun Chandok turned up the heat on the racing track in Formula 1, but new blood is now gearing up to test the waters by putting themselves on the biggest platform. It’s the plethora of opportunities that have made these youngsters confident of their skills and talent. “The new generation is quite lucky as there are so many opportunities for us in India, and the costs are low. We get the European standard of racing in India with European drivers coming in and giving us the best exposure and opportunity to prove ourselves and gain experience,” adds Aradhya.

Like Yash, Jehan Daruvala, too, was just nine when he found motorsports. Spanish Formula 1 driver Fernando Alonso kept Jehan glued to the Formula 1 track as a child. Now, a decade later, like his racing hero, he is all set to knock the doors of Formula 1. At the cusp of achieving his childhood dream, the 23-year-old has come a long way. From excelling in karting championships across Europe in 2013 to transitioning to cars in 2015, he has proven his mettle time and again. So much so that he has found a fan in Arjuna Award-winner and racer Gaurav Gill. “Jehan is doing great at the world level in Formula racing,” says Gaurav Gill, who won the Asia Pacific Rally Championship thrice and Indian National Rally Championship six times.

The future is bright

It was in the early 2000s that Gill started competing at the national level, and in the past two decades, this 40-year-old racer has seen the Indian motorsport scene evolve. “Motorsport has evolved from being a hobby to a career sport especially after my Arjuna Award. The younger generation can now look at it being a full-time job/sport,” says Gill.

Gill, who calls motorsports an ever-evolving sport, is excited about the future. “New technology, new drivers, and hopefully more corporate involvement are what we can expect in the future. We need to break away from cricket being sold as the only sport in India. We see so many Olympians now, and I hope to see lots more motorsport engagement soon,” says the racer who has started his own school to groom aspiring racers to hone their skills.

As more and more Indian-origin youth foray into the world of motorsports, India is finally ready to get past the chequered flag once again in the international circuit. One race at a time.

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