Global Indianstory Global Indian ExclusiveHow young racers are putting Indian motorsports on the global map

How young racers are putting Indian motorsports on the global map

Written by: Charu Thakur

(May 5, 2023) The news of Indian racer Jehan Daruvala joining the reigning Formula 2 champions MP Motorsport for the 2023 season sent ripples of anticipation among motorsports fans, as he became the second Indian racer to join Kush Maini for the 2023 FIA Formula 2 Championship season as he races for Campos Racing. The sport, which found its popularity in India in the 90s, has spurred the racing aspirations of many.

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 of a mean machine that can go insanely fast around a corner.

Jehan Daruvala

The adrenaline rush, blind cuts, and need for speed keep 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 April, 25-year-old Arjun Maini, and his team Haupt Racing got their first podium in the bronze category of the GT World Challenge Europe in Monza. Being his First Race of the Championship, getting a podium “meant a lot” to this young Indian racer.

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 the racer 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.

Arjun Maini

If Arjun is vrooming through unchartered territory with each of his races, his younger brother Kush Maini, too, is busy taking the legacy forward. He recently won his first-ever Formula 2 podium with a third-place finish in Melbourne. Sharing a photo, he tweeted, “P3 in today’s @Formula2 sprint race! Thank you @CamposRacing for the great car. Looking forward to the feature race.”

P3 in today’s @Formula2 sprint race! Thank you @CamposRacing for the great car. Looking forward to the feature race 🇮🇳👊🏽 pic.twitter.com/1659pCfrBH

— Kush Maini (@kmainiofficial) April 1, 2023

Following the footsteps of his brother, the 22-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 the 2021 Formula 3 Asian Championship where his team Mumbai Falcons did the unthinkable by clinching 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, 20-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.

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 grassroots 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.

Yash Aradhya at French Formula 4 2020.

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 in 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 on the doors of Formula 1. At the cusp of achieving his childhood dream, the 24-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 41-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 engagements soon,” says the racer who has started his 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.

Follow Yash Aaradhya on Instagram
Follow Jehan Daruvala on Twitter
Follow Arjun Maini on Twitter
Follow Kush Maini on Twitter

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Published on 05, May 2023

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Rhodes Scholar Swathi Srinivasan: Cancer survivor and health equity advocate

(October 1, 2024) "Find out what you care about and then see what questions you can ask about it." Rhodes scholar Swathi Srinivasan is a great believer in pursuing the things one is truly passionate about - that's why she's able to put so much on her plate. She had a patent by the time she finished high school, did a double major at Harvard University and was selected as a Rhodes Scholar 2021. Swathi also has a slew of recognition to her credit - she is a 2016 Melvyn Scholar, a Science Day alumna and an AJAS scholar too. Ever since she began her research work in high school, Swathi has gone on to work for UNAIDS in Geneva to understand the work being done to address HIV at an international level. She is part of the policy programme at the Harvard Kennedy School and has travelled the world for research on global healthcare for HIV/ AIDS, the opioid crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic and has also worked with the government of Massachusetts. Swathi was raised in an exceptionally well-educated and accomplished household. Her mother, Rekha, arrived in the US over two decades ago, after her wedding to Swathi's

wedding to Swathi's dad. She earned a PhD in the US and began teaching organic chemistry. Rekha is also a Fulbright scholar - in 2019 and 2020, she came to India and Nepal to offer STEM workshops across the two countries. Swathi's dad, a biomedical engineer, is credited with creating an improved incubator, among other paediatric devices.

[caption id="attachment_39659" align="aligncenter" width="251"] Rhodes scholar Swathi Srinivasan[/caption]

Battling the emperor of maladies

It's the sort of atmosphere, one imagines, that would have given the young Swathi a leg-up like no other. The accomplished Rhodes scholar, however, has faced more than her fair share of challenges. In late 2019, she was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a fairly aggressive cancer that attacks the lymph nodes and immune system. "I would ride my bike to chemotherapy everyday," she says, recalling her daily six-mile trip to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. She would ride in sunshine, rain and snow, despite having lost her hair. She managed all this without missing a single class.

Instead of lamenting her lot in life, Swathi used even this time to ponder the struggles of global healthcare, especially among the marginalised. "I was thinking of the side effects of chemotherapy, which is a really big issue too and matter differently to different people. I'm in school, I can take a day off when I feel nauseous but a single parent can't do that, can they? They have to show up at work no matter what." She could ride her bike to the hospital but wondered "how other people do it, if they live further away from the hospital and don't have a car. I was back to the question of inequality and this time around, I was a lot more connected to it." It inspired her to go back to the lab, to work on a form of chemotherapy that reduces side effects.

A low-cost incubator

Growing up, Swathi was always encouraged to pursue her interests, which were quite varied. When she wanted to be a fashion designer, her mom bought her a sewing machine. When she wanted to make jewellery, her mother helped her buy gemstones online. If she wanted to conduct an experiment, her mother would bring home the ingredients she needed. As for Swathi, she gives full credit to her parents and her mentors and its eager, she says, "to pay it forward." Her mother would take her to the lab when she was still a toddler and she had observed her father working. And when she still in high school, she had devised her own incubator.

"I burnt my hand on a resistor in the Physics lab one day," Swathi said. "And I was like, this device is pretty cool. So I created a grid of resistors and made a heating pad." She was inspired by her father's work but the incubators he created were very expensive, Swathi wanted accessibility. She discovered the MIT Think initiative for high school students and applied, even though she wasn't affiliated with a lab at the time. "I had no mentors or a lab to support me but I needed the money and said so. They said 'sure'," she recalls. "They brought me to MIT and I met all these crazy scientists doing amazing work. I even met a scientist I had cited in my bibliography." Her prototype involves a secondary heating mechanism embedded into a gel-based incubator, which keeps the gel hot for more than 30 hours.

Harvard calling

Unsurprisingly, Swathi graduated from high school and went to Harvard University with stars in her eyes, intent on becoming a neurosurgeon, with a special interest in the prevalence and treatment of Alzheimer's Disease. As she sat in class, she wondered - say there was a breakthrough in a cure. Would everyone with the disease have access to treatment? The answer was simple: no. Swathi found herself more intrigued by this question than the one she had intended to ask in the laboratory. She switched her major to public health, studying a double major in Economics, Sociology, Philosophy and History.

Here, Swathi's focus remained on studying public health epidemics and her thesis was on the impact of inequality on HIV/AIDS and the Covid-19 pandemic. She also did a minor in chemistry, which she uses to formulate her chemotherapy research. She was in an atmosphere where her talent and academic rigour were matched by her peers. "Some of my peers were featured in Forbes 30 Under 30," Swathi remarked. "They have published multiple papers, were ballet dancers in national companies... this naturally gets in your head and requires some adjusting."

The Rhodes scholarship

A highly-rigorous selection process precedes the Rhodes scholarship. For Swathi, it involved eight letters of recommendation and a letter of endorsement from her university, which put her against 125 applicants. Harvard selected 45 and she was among them, going on to become one of the 32 scholars selected from the United States. Every year, 100 students are selected to join the world's academic elite at Oxford Universiy, as the Rhodes Scholars for the year. In her personal essay, she talked about her own life and her roots, and how she saw poverty in India. "I actually woke up one morning and it showed up on my Facebook feed on US News, Yahoo and AP," she said in an interview.

Now at Oxford University, the Global Indian's purpose has not changed, she lives by the same lessons she earned from hermother. "We have gotten to where we are because so many people have lifted us up," she said. "Therefore, it's our job to lift up others."

Follow Swathi, a Rhodes scholar on LinkedIn

Amika George: How the Indian-origin activist ended period poverty in the UK

(September 11, 2024) "Girls Too Poor to Buy Sanitary Products Missing School" - this headline on the BBC website in 2017 was the starting point of a revolution that was set to change the course of the education system in the UK. Behind this tectonic shift was a then 17-year-old Amika George, who stumbled upon the fact that period poverty was a startling reality in not just India or Kenya, but the UK too. One in ten girls in the UK was unable to afford sanitary products. Many girls were forced to miss school every month for the lack of access to menstrual products - this shocking truth led the activist to set up Free Periods, to campaign against period poverty. It was on Instagram that the movement took off in April 2017 and soon turned into a peaceful protest outside Downing Street with a turnout of 2000 people including big names like Suki Waterhouse and Adwoa Aboah. "Even though everyone was protesting period poverty – something so horrendous – it was also a celebration of periods," she told the Guardian in an interview. The activism carried on for almost three years, which translated into a big win in January

ig win in January 2020 when the British government decided to provide schools with free sanitary products.

[caption id="attachment_23569" align="aligncenter" width="656"] Amika George is the founder of Free Periods.[/caption]

An article that led to a revolution

An article about young girls missing up to a week's classes in the UK every month due to the unaffordability to buy sanitary products left Amika shocked. "It seemed unfair that a natural biological process was responsible for girls falling behind. To imagine being absent from school hit me," she told the Hindu. The fact that the girls were no different from her except for their financial background, led her to start a Free Periods petition, especially at a time when the government was rolling out tampon tax - seeing it as a luxury item.

The response was unprecedented, with girls from Asian communities and other ethnic backgrounds emailing her about their struggles during periods. They told her their families had a hard time affording two square meals, and there was no money for sanitary pads. One mail made her realise how "deeply entrenched" the taboo is after a girl wrote to her saying that she would search her parents' wallets or sofa for coins every month to buy pads as she felt embarrassed to ask for help or talk about periods.

"I was shocked and decided to start a campaign to lobby the government, urging them to give free menstrual products to children from the lowest income families. I found support quickly and globally. So many people outreached to offer support, with many telling me that this was something they were going through and needed to be addressed." she told Pink Parcel.

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A post shared by Amika George (@amikageorge)

Ensuring equal access to education for all children, irrespective of their sex was the foundation of the Free Periods movement which later turned into a legal campaign against the UK government, along with a collaboration with the Red Box Project. "Period poverty is a situation many girls and women find themselves in when they cannot afford costly period products. Globally, period poverty intersects with other forms of disadvantage, including poverty and geography. It costs young girls their education. It impacts their ability to fulfill their potential and affects their ability to secure decent jobs and lift their families out of poverty. Period poverty is an issue of gender inequality," she wrote for UN Women.

Much-needed change

As soon as her petition attracted 1,80,000 signatures, she led a protest outside the British PM's residence in Downing Street in December 2017. However, the journey was long with its share of ups and downs. There were times when nothing worked, and social media was the only place that kept her goals afloat as she found support from many people online. On other occasions, she kept demanding change through media interviews and school visits. To give momentum to the campaign, she launched Free Periods - a nonprofit in January 2019 - to work with human rights lawyers who could persuade the UK government to pay for menstrual products and make sure that every child in the UK attended school regularly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WRuKvLMkpA

The journey towards activism

Her efforts were paying off as she became the poster girl of youth activism by making it to the Time Most Influential Teens of 2018 list, and later to Teen Vogue's 21 under 21 list. The 24-year-old, who studied Indian colonial history at Cambridge University, also became the youngest recipient of Member of the Order of the British Empire at the age of 21. However, it was nothing short of a double-edged sword for her because it was while pursuing her degree in history did, she learn about the atrocities of the British empire on Indians, and she wasn't sure if she wanted to be a Member of its Order.

While she was born in London, her grandparents moved to the UK in the 70s, and her extended family still resides in parts of Kerala. However, after much apprehension, she decided to accept the award stating that young people of colour are underrepresented in politics and activism.

All her hard work paid off after years of determination and persistence. "That took two and a half years. I started my campaign before I could even vote, and I think that’s a testament to the fact that you can achieve change as somebody who is not represented in politics," the Global Indian said. This gave her the confidence that activism at the grassroots level can change the course of history and motivated her to pen her first book Make It Happen to inspire others to contribute to a better world through practical steps. The step-by-step guide sheds light on every possible stepping stone from how to choose a cause to how to make allies to bring change at a time when the world needs it.

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A post shared by Amika George (@amikageorge)

"I’m not the loudest person in the room. Neither am I the most confident. If you’d told me four years ago, I would be speaking in front of TV cameras, or that I’d be standing alone on an open stage holding a mic on the other side of the world, I wouldn’t have believed you. But the urge to act takes over, and you feel you just have to do it. That feeling comes from something which matters to you. Whatever you want to change, whatever issue you feel is demanding to be heard, it can be you who makes it happen," reads an excerpt from her book.

Follow Amika George on Linkedin, Twitter and Instagram

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Inspiring young sheroes become change makers with their innovative ideas

This Women’s Day here are six young sheroes who've stepped into the limelight as they set about changing the world with their work and achievements. (March 8, 2022) They’re young, they’re fun and they’re raring to go. These young women know exactly what it takes to make a difference in a rapidly changing world and they’re channelising their talents in the right direction. From Karishma Mehta taking story telling to a whole new level, to giving performance art a new dimension, and conserving endangered languages, these women are in a league of their own. Global Indian turns the spotlight on some of these young movers and shakers as they gear up to take on the world. Shruti Rijhwani, researcher saving endangered languages The Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based Ph.D candidate at Carnegie Mellon University was named in the 2022 Forbes 30 Under 30 in science. Shruti Rijhwani researched, and has won accolades on the conservation of endangered language around the world. She pursued her BS degree in computer science at Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani in 2015. Selected as a research intern in applied science at Microsoft Research India, in 2015, Shruti developed search software for retrieval and deduplication of misspelled entries.

hruti Rijhwani researched, and has won accolades on the conservation of endangered language around the world. She pursued her BS degree in computer science at Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani in 2015. Selected as a research intern in applied science at Microsoft Research India, in 2015, Shruti developed search software for retrieval and deduplication of misspelled entries. Interning at Microsoft, and later at MIT Media Lab- Google Summer of Code, her forte in language conservation was to be her main stay.

In 2018, she was awarded a Bloomberg data science PhD Fellowship, and with that she became an expert on data science.

Shruti, who has been working on developing natural language processing technologies to help communities revitalise endangered languages, tweeted, “Incredibly honoured to be recognised on the 2022 @Forbes 30 under 30 list in science!” The Forbes moniker is just the beginning for this deeply research-oriented mind.

[embed]https://twitter.com/bhatia_mehar/status/1493197075445874690?s=20&t=Hi3Mxu1uxX8uHg2A87Zj9g[/embed]

Her goal is to rejuvenate endangered languages. According to Unesco, about 40 percent of the world’s 7,000 languages are endangered. Rijhwani’s algorithms helped extract text from non-digitised books and handwritten documents and make them accessible online. At the Language Technologies Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, advised by Graham Neubig, she says, “My main research interest lies in natural language processing (NLP) and I have worked on various NLP tasks across a broad spectrum of domains and languages. My current research focuses on developing deep learning models for multilingual and low-resource NLP.”

Follow Shruti Rijhwani on Twitter

Sriya Lenka, 18, first Indian K-pop artiste

An 18-year-old is just a step away from becoming the first-ever K-pop artiste from India. Meet Sriya Lenka, the singer who is among the two finalists set to grab a spot in the South Korean girl band Blackswan. The Rourkela-born dancer and yoga practitioner, beat thousands in auditions to gain the top spot. She is currently in Korea for a month-long training under DR Music company before the final showdown with Brazil’s Gabriela Strassburger Dalcin to win a spot in the girl band.

“Surreal,” is how Sriya describes her journey from Rourkela to Korea to train under the best in the music industry. DR Music recently shared photographs of the singer on Instagram and introduced her to the world as a Blackswan probable. A trained singer, Sriya initially had a tough time finding the perfect vocal trainer, but she eventually found a way. “I’d request everyone to support me and help me achieve my dreams,” the singer said.

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Vrinda Chadha, 26, young Odissi dancer spreading art and culture

Vrinda Chadha has dance flowing through her entire being. The senior disciple of renowned Odissi dance exponent Guru Ranjana Gauhar, Vrinda has been training under her for the past 20 years since she was six. Vrinda, an alumna of Lady Shri Ram College for Women, also received a national scholarship for Odissi dance from the ministry of culture and is empanelled with the Indian Council for Cultural Relations and Doordarshan. Her mudras and expertise have taken her across the globe – Spain, Argentina, Korea, Japan, China, Singapore, United Kingdom, Madagascar, and Seychelles. Conferred with the Nalanda Nritya Nipuna Award in Mumbai, the Young Talent Award by the International Academy of Mohiniyattam in Delhi, the title of Odissi Ratna in Bhubaneswar and the Kameshwari Award in Guwahati, her talent is much talked about.

“As a dancer I have always valued the ability to express and connect with one’s innermost being through the medium of art. The liberation and joy of surrender in such an experience is unparalleled and is also what connects me not only to myself but also to those watching,” says Vrinda. As she continues to stretch artistic brilliance every time she takes to the stage, she adds, “My art empowers and frees me both on and off stage. It is my identity. Through it, I hope to spread love, peace and consciousness in the ensuing days of 2022.” This accomplished dancer also believes in giving back and works as a fellow at Teach for India.

Follow Vrinda Chadha on Instagram

Mohini Dey, 24, youngest bass player

She picked up the bass guitar when she was three years old, egged on by her jazz musician father. The youngest bass player in the country, Mohini Dey has recorded music for over 100 films and has collaborated with some of the biggest names in the music industry, including AR Rahman and Zakir Husain. She's a star in her own right too, with her striking appearance, marked by wild curly hair and prodigious technique, Mohini is quite unmistakable. By the age of 11, she was performing professionally and even designing her own outfits.

Described as the Most Successful Musician Under 30 by Forbes India, Mohini, now 24, has spent 16 years in the industry. It's a tough field to be in, especially as a bass player in India. More so as a woman. Dey has loved every moment of her journey, however. "I am very selective about the work I do and I have lots of fun doing it... My life has been always been adventurous and I like it that way."

[embed]https://twitter.com/milinddeora/status/1366051645893738500?s=20&t=JgQ6-ijhfiv_wO5i0pkStQ[/embed]

Her father, Sujoy Dey, also a bass guitarist, was her first teacher. "My dad was so busy and would come home late at night. But he would wake me up, even if it was 1 am and teach me," she said. “I didn't have friends! All my friends were uncles and brothers."

Her latest offering, Damaru directed by LA-based JS Arts, was conceptualised by Suchismita, another of AR Rahman's proteges, for Maha Shivratri 2022. An up-tempo number, Damaru uses Indian vocals, hip hop and EDM and also features Grammy-award winning composer Ricky Kej as well as London-based rapper Maya Miko.

Follow Mohini Dey on Twitter

Aditi Chauhan, 29, goalkeeper of the Indian women’s football team

The goalkeeper of the Indian national team is known for her resoluteness guarding the Indian goal. Among the most talented and experienced in the final line-up, Aditi has a fervour and singlemindedness that is evident on the field. She is the first Indian woman from India’s national football women’s team to play internationally at an English premiere league club, West Ham United. She was also named Asian Footballer of the Year during her stint playing in the United Kingdom.

Chauhan moved to Delhi as a nine-year-old, and schooled at Amity International School. Always sporty, she tried her hand at many games before “the beautiful game” stole her heart. At 15, Aditi appeared on the team for the Delhi women's football team U19 squad.

The girl, who studied MSc in sports management at Loughborough University, joined English premiere league club West Ham United Ladies where she spent two to three seasons. Aditi was a part of the Indian women’s team that won the 2012 SAFF Women's Championship in Sri Lanka. She also played at the recently concluded 2022 AFC Women's Asian Cup.

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“Those that shoulder the biggest dreams, face the biggest challenges. Maybe this team’s biggest victory will be in overcoming this, and still going - still playing with heart, still dreaming! The blue tigresses will be back and roar louder than ever, we promise. Keep supporting,” she tweeted.

Follow Aditi Chauhan on Twitter

Karishma Mehta, 29, founder, Humans of Bombay

She was all of 21 when she decided to launch Humans of Bombay, a social media platform inspired by the Humans of New York page. Today, as her platform clocks in over 2.2 million followers on Instagram, it brings to life stories of grit, determination and the resilience of human nature. With tales of battling abuse, racism, and overcoming tragedy, her posts manage to touch hearts and inspire across age groups. Being able to get a hold of these stories was no easy feat for this University of Nottingham alum. Strangers would shy away from speaking to her, till she finally made her breakthrough. Today, the 29-year-old’s platform not just highlights stories, but also helps its subjects through crowdfunding campaigns.

From social media influencer to entrepreneur and author, her journey is nothing short of remarkable. And as she marches on, Karishma has also been featured in reputed international publications like Forbes. As she surges on in her mission to bring to life stories that matter and extend a helping hand along the way, Karishma posted on Instagram, “I was 21 when I founded Humans of Bombay and through these eight years, I’ve had what seems like multiple MBA courses simultaneously. But sluicing through the myriad of business, finance, and the whole shebang, the one invaluable skill we have honed, is the art of storytelling.”

Follow Karishma Mehta on Twitter

Reading Time: 8 mins

Maanasa Mendu empowers the world: A teen’s mission for global electricity access

(December 20, 2023) She was all of 14 when Ohio-born Maanasa Mendu made it to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, making her the youngest person ever to achieve the feat. But behind this recognition was an invention that could be a potential answer to the global energy crisis. The same innovation won her the grand prize in the Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge and $25,000. It all began when she first visited her grandparents in rural India for her summer break, and witnessed persistent blackouts. Seeing children huddled over a single kerosene lamp made her sit up and take notice of the grave issue at hand, and decided to make a difference. That's when she designed Harvest – an energy harvesting device that combines piezoelectric effect that harvests energy from sun, wind and precipitation. [caption id="attachment_34746" align="aligncenter" width="549"] Maanasa Mendu[/caption] The trip to India played an pivotal role in helping her search for answers. Upon her research, she spent hours at length digging deep into information and found that 88 percent of the energy supply comes from non-renewable sources, which are not only harmful to the environment but also depleting. A renewable source was the answer. However, its

ation and found that 88 percent of the energy supply comes from non-renewable sources, which are not only harmful to the environment but also depleting. A renewable source was the answer. However, its high cost played a spoiler. That's when Maanasa decided to design an "inexpensive and potentially globally application energy solution."

"Imagine a place where life ends after dark, where there are no electric lights for school work or refrigeration for perishables. This is not part of some dystopian society – it’s a part of our world today. Over 1.2 billion people lack access to electricity," Maanasa said in TedX talk.

When she was 11 years old, she learned about something called the piezoelectric effect, which is when certain materials create electricity when pressure is applied. She discovered this while reading about a railway station in Japan with floors that produce electricity from people walking on them. This got her excited about finding a renewable energy solution.

After a year of researching and reading, she got the idea for a device shaped like a leaf that could harness energy from the wind and rain. The inspiration came to her while watching tree branches sway during a storm. These branches looked like piezoelectric materials to her—tiny devices that generate power through vibration. This motivated her to start working on her first design.

Initially, she wanted to focus only on using the wind for power, but she ended up creating a prototype that can harness energy from both the sun and the wind, as well as the vibrations from raindrops. Her device has three solar "leaves" that act like solar panels but also move with the wind and rain. She built the prototype using recycled materials for only $5. Her design won her the Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge.

"The issue with the energy crisis lies not in the fact that we lack ideas or solutions to solve it, but rather in the fact that we are unable to get these solutions to the people who need it the most,” said Maanasa.

When she started designing the device, she was only thinking about using the wind for energy, especially in cities where traditional wind turbines don't work well. However, as she worked on it, she realized that there are other sources of untapped energy around us, like the sun and rain. She thought, "If my device only depends on one specific thing, the amount of power it produces might change throughout the day. But if it depends on multiple things, like how sunny it is, how fast the wind is blowing, and whether it's raining, all these factors together could make a more steady source of power with more energy."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEDvTJT5o7Q

Maanasa reveals that Harvest can power a 15watt LED bulb after three hours of charging. It took her three years to come up with Harvest, that has the potential to be the answer to the global energy crisis, and she says that it was curiosity that led her to the solution. Currently studying Neuroscience and Global Health and Health Policy at Harvard College, Maanasa is an aspiring physician and public health researcher. Apart from developing a renewable energy device to address energy poverty, she is also identifying video-based biomarkers for delirium, exploring heart-brain neural circuits in zebrafish, and studying cancer incidence among people with HIV in Botswana.

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Revolutionising healthcare globally: Young scholar Tanishq Abraham launches AI-based research organisation

(March 2, 2023) The COVID-19 pandemic had a major impact on the healthcare system across the world, forcing professionals to come up with unique solutions to ensure the delivery of essential health services. Working on the next frontier of medicine, 19-year-old Indian-American scholar Tanishq Mathew Abraham has launched a cutting-edge artificial intelligence research organisation, Medical AI Research Center (MedARC), focused on an open, and collaborative approach to healthcare AI research. Tanishq, a fifth-year Biomedical Engineering Ph.D. candidate at the University of California Davis researching applications of AI to pathology and microscopy, has teamed up with renowned data scientist and medical AI researcher, Jeremy Howard. "MedARC’s focus on open-source research and foundation model development will fill two of the biggest gaps currently holding back AI from achieving its full potential in medicine," Tanishq recently informed in an interview. Only last year the two-hundred-year-old Dutch publishing house, Elsevier, printed copies of their latest book on artificial intelligence and deep learning in pathology, with a 30-page chapter written by the 19-year-old scholar. And it is not his first contribution to the scientific world. The young scholar has been writing journals and authoring scientific papers since he was merely ten years old. He is

rc="https://www.globalindian.com/youth//wp-content/uploads/2023/03/MedARC-500x281-1.jpg" alt="Scholar | Tanishq Abraham | Global Indian" width="650" height="366" />

Only last year the two-hundred-year-old Dutch publishing house, Elsevier, printed copies of their latest book on artificial intelligence and deep learning in pathology, with a 30-page chapter written by the 19-year-old scholar. And it is not his first contribution to the scientific world. The young scholar has been writing journals and authoring scientific papers since he was merely ten years old. He is also responsible for discovering a supernova, an exoplanet, and a solar storm while going through hundreds of images from NASA's Long-Range Observatory and Kepler projects - just when he was eight. Global Indian takes a look at the marvellous journey of this child prodigy, who is revolutionising the world of biomedical engineering.

Child Genius

With their roots in Kerala, Tanishq's parents, veterinary doctor Dr. Taji Abraham and techie Bijou Abraham, moved to the United States in search of better career opportunities. A few years into his birth, his mother knew that her son was a special kid as he could solve basic mathematics problems at the age of two, a feat not many can achieve. Two years later, he took the Mensa exam and scored a brilliant 99.9 percent.

[caption id="attachment_28004" align="aligncenter" width="650"] Nine year old Tanishq, presenting his first research project at the NASA Lunar Science Forum[/caption]

Realising that it would be difficult for any school to match their son's genius, the couple decided to home-school Tanishq. At five, the child prodigy cracked Stanford University’s math course, offered under their Education Programme for Gifted Youth, in just six months. Owing to the need that he had to socialise with other people, Tanishq was enrolled at the local community college, while he prepared rigorously for his high school exams at home.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kq3FopGY6Fc

At nine, Tanishq became the youngest person to speak at NASA’s Ames conferences in 2012, after he discovered a supernova, an exoplanet, and a solar storm while going through hundreds of images from NASA's Long-Range Observatory and Kepler projects. Just a few months before his 11th birthday, the scholar earned his high school degree, making him the youngest to do so in the US. Interestingly, Tanishq's younger sister, Tiara, is no different. The 16-year-old musical prodigy recently received the Young Arts award in Classical Voice 2022.

Changing the course of biomedical engineering

A 10-year-old armed with a high school degree, Tanishq's next stop was American River College, where he graduated junior college with three associate degrees. Motivated to pursue a career in medicine, the scholar joined the University of California to pursue a degree in biomedical engineering. “I decided to go into biomedical engineering because it’s interdisciplinary and at the forefront of medical research. It’s a field with the potential for positive impact on society," Tanishq said during an interview with the UC Davis Magazine.

[caption id="attachment_20253" align="aligncenter" width="650"] Tiara and Tanishq Abraham[/caption]

However, the journey was tougher than he imagined. While the curriculum was a cakewalk for the child genius, he had to deal with bullying at the hands of his peers and unsupportive faculty. So much so that many professors refused to take him seriously and even barred him from taking up their courses. However, his love for learning kept him going, and he was able to earn his undergraduate degree summa cum laude.

At 15, Tanishq decided to join the University of California's Ph.D. programme in biomedical engineering, which he is still pursuing. Under the able supervision of Dr. Richard Levenson, the scholar is researching the application of deep learning (especially generative networks) to novel microscopy techniques for digital pathology. "Through deep learning, we should soon be able to enhance images from microscopes to make them easier for pathologists to interpret. Radiology and pathology are already suited for the integration of AI technology as these areas of medicine involve sets of digitised images," he informed UC Davis Magazine.

Inspiring others

A STEM educator on Twitter, Tanishq has been inspiring young minds to follow their passion through TEDx Talks. Recently, the scholar also wrote a 30-page chapter titled, Applications of Artificial Intelligence for Image Enhancement in Pathology, as an author. The book, which focuses on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in Pathology, is a multi-author book. The scholar is a member of the Levenson Lab at UC Davis, where he is working on understanding the application of deep learning for digital pathology. In the running for the Global Student Prize 2022, the young scholar is the youngest-ever member of Phi Beta Kappa, the oldest academic society in the United States of America.

But it’s the funding that’s keeping him at a hand’s distance from his goal. Urging the society and governments to fund research facilities, the scholar told UC Davis Magazine, “It’s amazing that science accomplishes as much as it does when research receives so little funding in comparison to other budget priorities, such as the military. We need to fund the NSF and the NIH, and cash from them trickles down to many labs, including those at UC Davis. And you never know when science will make a huge discovery that changes lives and helps many people."

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