Great Innovation by kids - Torch

Recently one of my colleagues shared a link to the innovative ideas presented by the kids in the IGNITE competition. It is an annual national competition to harness the creative spirit of school children and find the greatest innovation by kids conducted by the National Innovation Foundation of India. The first innovative idea on the list brought a smile to my face. The idea was a torch with an additional bulb presented by Mohammed Alisher, a class 12 student.

When I was a child, I spent most of my summer vacation in my hometown which was not entirely powered by electricity. As you can imagine, there were no street lamps, so we relied on torches to move from one house to another. We were always short of the number of torches, so we used to swing the torches back and forth to help the people of us to find their way in the dark.

Stepping on a snake in the dark was always fear I had in my mind :).Alisher, who presented this idea, fell into a pit in while lighting the path for his grandmother. Hence, he came up with the idea of having another bulb below the main bulb. It is a simple yet brilliant idea to solve a real life problem.

Such stories of innovative ideas are inspiring to anyone interested in innovation and entrepreneurship. Kids can be very creative and have converted their ideas into commercial successes. The earmuffs widely used in the cold countries was created by Chester Greenwood at the age of 15 to prevent his ears from paining due to the cold while ice skating!

When it comes to innovation, we should ask ‘Why not’ rather than ‘Is it feasible?’ which causes mental blocks in adults. Perhaps this could be one of the reasons why children are more creative than adults.

Once while returning home, Alisher fell into a pit and got hurt. He had a torch in hand, but he was using it to show the way for his grandmother who was coming behind him. This incident gave him an idea to use a single torch to lighten up two different directions. Read more at nif.org.in