The 32 Young Winners Of ‘Bal Puraskar’

Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar, or simply Bal Puruskar is the highest civilian award given in India to individuals below the age of 18 who provide exceptional service to the society. The winners of this award are bestowed a medal of honour, Rs 1 Lakh as prize money, along with a tablet to enable their learning and growth. This year, thirty-two children from across the nation have been granted the Bal Puruskar for their outstanding skills and exceptional feats in creativity, scholastics, sports, arts, literature, and social service, and valor.

List of Bal Puraskar Winners 2021

The awardees hail from 32 regions spanning the entire country. 

• 7 honours have been given in the department of Art & Culture
• 9 awards for Innovation
• 5 for Scholastic Achievements
• 7 for Sports Achievements
• 3 honours for acts of Courage 
• 1 child has been honoured for her efforts in Social Service.

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1. Ameya Lagdu

Ameya Lagdu, a 12-year old, was awarded the Bal Puraskar for her extraordinary augmentation in the field of dance. Ameya, Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, has been receiving lessons in Bharatnatyam and Kuchipudi since she was 4. She has also performed on stage over 100 times in nations like Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and even Vietnam.

2. Hrudaya R Krishnan (17)

Hrudaya R Krishnan was awarded Bal Puraskar for her accompaniment skills. This talented Veena player from Thiruvananthapuram was also awarded a scholarship from the Centre of Cultural Resources and Training for instrumental music. Not just that, she has also been felicitated with several honors, some of which include the prestigious Ujjwala Balayam, Deen Dayal Sparsh, and many more.

3. Vyom Ahuja (11)

Vyom Ahuja, hailing from Lucknow, is a music maestro, adept at playing 9 different instruments, which include the flute, the mouth organ, drums, the synthesizer, conch, table, guitar, the Doumbek (Goblet drum), and the Glockenspiel. He was awarded Bal Puraskar for his accompaniment skills. He is also recognized as a multifaceted flute beatboxing performer. He has performed on stage in more than three hundred programs.

4. Anurag Ramola (16)

Anurag Ramola, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, has been chosen for the Bal Puraskar for his accomplishments in the domain of art and culture. Bestowed with nineteen global awards, thirty-eight national honors, and over seventy state and district grants, his artwork was also exhibited in a display at Talkatora Stadium in New Delhi last year. He has also earned the National Child Artist Award and National Art Excellence Award among other honors.

5. Tanuj Samaddar (16)

Tanuj Samaddar from the Kamrup district of Assam. He is recognized for his work with colored pencils, oil, and watercolors. He has been chosen for the Bal Puraskar for his accomplishments in the domain of art and culture. His artworks have been displayed in distinguished art galleries globally and have also acquired ten global and thirty-five national awards in the domain.

6. Venish Keisham (15)

Venish Keisham from Manipur’s Imphal West district has been chosen for the Bal Puraskar for her accomplishments in the domain of art and culture. An achiever since birth, she has already won various state, national and global awards for her exceptional talent in the field of art. Currently studying in class 11th of Kendriya Vidyalaya, Venish aspires to be an art professor.

7. Souhardhya De (16)

Soudhardhya De, a resident of Medinipur West, West Bengal, is a budding proficient writer who likes Historical Fiction and Mythology. Among the 32 Young Winners of Bal Puraskar, he is also an art and culture columnist. He also carries the qualification of being the youngest ever Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland.

8. Jyoti Kumari (16)

The challenging COVID-induced lockdown brought into limelight a fighter named Jyoti Kumari, who cycled over 1200 km from Gurugram to Bihar in May last year. She has been awarded for her grit, along with her physical endurance and mental strength. This winner of the Bal Puraskar has been receiving global applause and aspires to be a national level cyclist.

9. Kunwar Divyansh (16)

Kunwar Divyansh has been awarded the Bal Puraskar for protecting his five-year-old sister and 7 of her classmates from an enraged bull just by himself. Although he suffered numerous fractures in the process, he held his ground and successfully protected the younger children from the animal. This youngster from the Barabanki district has already been granted several state and national level honors for his valor.

10. Kameshwar Jagannath Waghmare (14)

Kameshwar Jagannath Waghmare from Maharashtra made his bid for the prized Bal Puraskar in February 2020, when he successfully protected two of his companions from drowning. It was remarkable how he managed to save both the boys who were older than himself. This honor comes eleven months after his heroic act. He strives to grow into a national level swimmer.

11. Rakesh Krishna K (15)

Rakesh Krishna K is a growing genius from Bannur, Puttur taluk. He has invented a multi-seed sowing machine called the ‘Seedographer’, which helps make agriculture more efficient and well-organized. The Karnataka state government has also recognised and supported him for this innovation.

12. Shreenabh Agrawal (17)

Shreenabh Agrawal, a young genius, bestowed with the Bal Puraskar from Nagpur has many accomplishments to his prestige. He aced the International Youth Math Challenge, which is deemed to be one of the biggest global Mathematics contests for students. His benefaction to the farming sector has remodeled hundreds of farmers’ lives. He has already printed more than two hundred scientific articles,2 books, and 7 research articles.

13. Veer Kashyap (10)

During the trying times of the pandemic, Veer Kashyap’s innovative mind helped him create an award-winning board game, which he named Corona Yuga. He devised this board game with things found lying around at home. 

14. Namya Joshi (13)

Namya Joshi from Ludhiana, Punjab has been a recipient of a number of global awards celebrating innovation. She was honored by Satya Nadella himself for designing course material for teachers usinga popular video game, named Minecraft. She is also the youngest receiver of the Global E-Innovation award 2019. 

15. Archit Rahul Patil (14)

Archit Rahul Patil’s innovation has helped him devise a life-saving and affordable silicone device, which is named the Post-Partum Haemorrhage Cup, which measures obstetric blood loss accurately in real-time. This provides immense help to the healthcare sector and aids save the lives of parturient women.

16. Ayush Ranjan (15)

Ayush Ranjan’s pleasure prevails in software development. He has devised an award-winning software for which he has been recognised at the national level. Some of his genius works include DigiSmart Bin – a trash billing stage, and MushroomArc – a Mushroom Artificial Intelligence (AI) Classifier.

17. Hemesh Chadalavada (14)

Hemesh Chadalavada has been awarded the Bal Puruskar for his genius innovation which allows an individual proctor to know the whereabouts of Alzheimer patients, helping immensely with their healthcare and well-being. He has also been awarded numerous state and national awards.

18. Chirag Bhansali (16)

Chirag Bhansali devised and started a website called SwadeshiTech which hunts to replace Chinese apps and goods. It came right after the government banned Chinese apps.

19. Harmanjot Singh (13)

Harmanjot Singh won the Bal Puraskar under the innovation section. He has been given this honor for building a mobile app, named Raksha, associating with women’s protection during the COVID-19 lockdown.

20. Mohammad Shadab (17)

Mohammad Shadab has been awarded the Bal Puraskar for his distinction in academics. Making his mark at the international stage already, he has also received the US State department’s Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study Program.

21. Anand Kumar (17)

Anand is known for his superiority in Mathematics. Acknowledged as ‘Jupiter’ among his classmates, he won the Ramanujan Fellowship Award in 2020.

22. Avnesh Subham Pradhan (15)

Avnesh Subham Pradhan has been awarded the Pradhanmantri Bal Puraskar for his exceptional performance in academics. He has performed excellently in various Olympiad events, and has bagged a number of awards which include, 3 consecutive gold medals in the Singapore and Asian School Math Olympiad.

23. Anuj Jain

Anuj Jain has represented India on numerous academic platforms and has received the award in the Scholastic category. He scored gold, silver and bronze medals in 3 contests at the International Earth Science Olympiad, which gauges student’s knowledge about the planet and its environment. He also scored 99 percentile in the Standard Examination of Chemistry and stood fifth in the Mental Arithmetic Competition.

24. Sonit Santosh Sisolekar (14)

Acknowledged as a geology prodigy, he is amongst the youngest volcanologist and planetary geologists in India. He was also granted the Best Scientist Award at the age of 11. 

25. Prasiddhi Singh (7)

Prasiddhi Singh is this year’s youngest awardee. She is a social aide from Chengalpattu district in Tamil Nadu. She has previously planted over 13,500 fruit trees and has formulated 13 fruit forests.

26. Savita Kumari (16)

Awarded the Bal Puraskar for her distinction in sports, Savita is a very keen archer. A citizen of Jharkhand, Savita is determined to represent India at the Asian Games.

27. Arshiya Das (10)

Arshiya from Tripura has won an international gold medal, and she is also a national chess champion. She also received a gold medal in the National School Chess Championship and is also the youngest international rated player of the state with an ELO evaluation of 1053 in 2017.

28. Palak Sharma (13)

Palak Sharma has been chosen for the grant under the sports category for her outstanding skills in diving. Having won a gold medal in 2019 in an Asian diving championship.

29. Mohammad Rafey (16)

Mohammad is a gymnast who made India gratified by acquiring the first-ever bronze medal in the 1st Junior Artistic Gymnastics Asian Cup held in Mongolia in 2019. He has also won numerous honors at several National level competitions and championships.

30. Kamya Karthikeyan (13)

Kaya Karthikeyan is the youngest personality to succeed Mount Aconcagua and the youngest to ski from Mount Elbrus’s summit. 

31. Khushi Chirag Patel

The skilled Khushi, a skating victor, has gained many badges at district and national level championships. She has also stewarded India at global championships.

32. Mantra Jitendra

Mantra is the youngest athlete from India to win two gold medals in swimming at the World Summer Games held at Abu Dhabi Special in 2019. 

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