Chennai: A Class 2 Virudhunagar girl on Monday has bagged the Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar award for inventing Automatic Functional Life Rescue Flood House. The girl along with the award received a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh through video-conferencing at Virudhunagar Collectorate.
A tweet from Virudhunagar Collector Meghanath Reddy's office said, "Prime Minister Narendra Modi awarded PM Rashtriya Bal Puraskar for Class 2 girl Vilasini for innovating Automatic Functional Life Rescue Flood House through video-conferencing in Virudhunagar Collectorate. She was also given a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh."
Vilasini is the daughter of M Naresh Kumar and Dr Chithrakala. She is studying in Class 2 at the Delhi School of Excellence in Hyderabad, Telangana.
Her innovation focused on houses that could float on the water during floods and she also received a patent for the device which can help during natural calamities.
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Meanwhile, India's youngest paleontologist Aswatha Biju, who is studying in Class 9, has bagged the innovation award under the Tamil Nadu category for creating awareness about the conservation of fossils.
It all started for Aswatha Biju when her father first bought her an encyclopedia. While she was turning the pages of the book, she saw a giant fossilised ammonite, which raised her curiosity in paleontology. She also visited Egmore Museum to learn more about fossils.
By the time she turned 11 years, she was aware that she was observing fossils and the field that deals with fossils is paleontology and started creating awareness about paleontology to the public since it is especially endangered in India.