Guwahati, Feb. 21: It is said talent can take you places, and 19-year-old student Swapnanil Talukdar's genius has landed him at Rashtrapati Bhavan.
The engineering student of Girijananda Chowdhury Institute of Management at Azara built a foot-operated manual page-turning machine in 2014. The device assists those with upper-limb impairment or injury to flip pages of books easily.
His invention has earned him a two-week stay at the presidential residence (from March 12-26), giving him an opportunity to seek inspiration and institutional support and take his ideas forward.
Talukdar, a resident of the city's Kahilipara area, is among seven grassroots innovators who have been selected from across the country for the Innovation Scholars In-Residence programme of Rashtrapati Bhavan. The programme was launched in 2013 to promote the spirit of innovation and provide further impetus to grassroots innovation activities.
The programme is part of President Pranab Mukherjee's initiative to open the doors of Rashtrapati Bhavan for pioneering scholars, writers and artists.
Elated with his selection, Talukdar told The Telegraph that this was an opportunity to not only meet the President but also get connected with technical institutions and get mentoring and support so that his invention could be used for the welfare of society.
During their stay in New Delhi, the innovators will interact with ministries concerned, research institutions and so on for possible support for product development and commercialisation of their designs.
The main objective of the scheme is to provide an environment to grassroots innovators in Rashtrapati Bhavan to work on a project in hand and to further develop their innovative ideas.
"We will interact with Union human resource development minister Smriti Irani and minister for science and technology and earth sciences Harsh Vardhan and will also get a chance to witness the change of guard ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan," Swapnanil said. "I'm quite excited and looking forward to a fruitful trip to Rashtrapati Bhavan, which has been always a subject of curiosity for the general public."
Swapnanil's parents - father Debajit, who works as manager at a bank, and mother Nirmali, a homemaker - are very proud.
He said the idea to develop page-turning machine originated out of his own laziness.
"Once after my tuition class, I felt too tired to even turn pages of the text book. I then thought of this idea and later realised that it could be used by many other physically disadvantaged persons as well," he said.
A self-confessed foodie, Swapnanil likes travelling, gardening, watching science-based television programmes and dancing. He is a philatelist with a collection of over 1,000 stamps. He wants to become a chemistry or physics professor and promote "out-of-the-box" thinking.
