IIT Kanpur team wins Lucas TVS Innovation Award

Chennai, Aug 21 (UNI) Three students of IIT Kanpur won the first prize, the 'Lucas TVS Innovation Award' in the national level design contest for engineering students for 2006-2007, organised by the Product Development and Management Association (PDMA) India.

Manoj Kumar Tripathy, Kumar Abhishek and Rahul Sharma of IIT Kanpur were presented a cash award of Rs one lakh at a function held here recently.

The second prize, 'RMK Engineering College Award', carrying a cash prize of Rs 50,000, was bagged by Mayank Jain of Maharaja Agrasen Institute of Technology, Delhi. The third prize, 'RMD Engineering College Award' with a cash reward of Rs 35,000 was split between two teams representing Easwari Engineering College and Meenakshi Sundarajan Engineering College, a release here said.

Four teams were awarded Rs 10,000 (per team) as consolation prize, instituted by Anadocs IT Solutions. Besides, special prizes of Rs 5,000 (per team) were awarded to seven teams for reaching the finals and merit certificates were given to five other teams.

RMK Group of Institutions Founder-Chairman R S Munirathinam distributed the prizes to the winners. Mr K R Anandakumaran Nair, Executive Director (Development), Lucas TVS Ltd, Chennai, presided over the function.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Munirathinam said ''competitions like this presents engineering students opportunities to test all the theories they have studied. This kind of competition helps to fill the void between education and practical applications. I want students to make complete use of such competitions to sharpen their skills. We are happy to be associated with PDMA in this design contest and would continue to support them.'' Delivering his presidential address, Mr Nair said innovation was the biggest crisis of the industry. ''I want the culture of innovation to grow and take deep roots among students.'' UNI