Nirmal: Rural tech fest begins at RGUKT Basar

Nirmal: Nirmal District Collector Prashanthi Friday inaugurated the national-level India's biggest rural technical festival titled as 'Antahpragnya 2020' here at Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge Technologies, Basar (RGUKT-Basar), 180 km from here.

Speaking on the occasion, Prashanthi said, "when we talk of globalisation we talk about smart cities, but not smart villages. India lives in the villages. Rural areas cannot afford to miss the development bus". Exhorting the engineering students to develop things with humanitarian aspects, she said most of the developments in two lakh years had taken place in the last century. We cannot even imagine the future", she said.

The Collector also said, "In the coming decade, we may have Nano robots conducting surgical operations and in the near future, shops may not even exist. Perhaps we will order everything on the mobile and it will be home delivered. I consider RGUKT as my prized possession. I am proud to have this kind of prestigious institution in my district", she added. She also announced that the Nirmal district would soon ban plastics.

The three-day technical fest from January 31 to February 2 with the theme 'Spot and encourage rural tech innovators' will have over 200 events viz., campus farming competition, robo racing, robo soccer, development of ideal villages, national science fair and others attracting nearly 50,000 people from nearby places and colleges. Antahpragnya 2020 to showcase 300 plus prototype working models created by 4,000 rural ignited minds from the RGUKT varsity.

Dr A Ashok, IAS, Vice-Chancellor, RGUKT-Basar; Dr Y Rajeshwar Rao, Administrative Officer, RGUKT-Basar; Akella Raghavendra, IAS, trainer, motivational speaker and author; Shekhar Babu mountaineer and motivational speaker; Raghuram Ananthoj, Senior Manager, Dell; Swapnil Jangale, Convener; Hari Babu, Co-Convener, Dr Vijay Kumar, Convener Trinayana and others were present.

Addressing the gathering, mountaineer Shekhar Babu said he was on a recce to Nirmal and Adilabad districts to set up an Adventure Training Center. He asked the engineering students to help develop communication beyond mobile and VHF (Very High Frequency) signals range to help mountaineers.

Akella Raghavendra, guest of honour, asked the students to challenge faculty with questions in quest of knowledge. He asked them to focus on Vijaya Lakshmi (Goddess of Success), Dhana Lakshmi (Goddess of Wealth) in order achieve success and wealth go to Saraswati (Goddess of Knowledge). Swapnil Jangale, Convener, P. Hari Babu, Co-Convener also spoke. The three-day rural technical festival will conclude on Sunday evening