Harshawardhan Zala, a 14 year old Young Inspiring Entrepreneur

By looking at the title some might already got idea of what this article is about and many others might be wondering -  "who this teenager is ???" Before jumping into the answers, let me clarify that in science and tech field the term "drone" is a commonly used for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles - an aircraft without a human pilot on-board. Depending on the application these drones have different designs and sizes from as small as that of a bee to as big as that of a real airplane.

        

I feel as honored and cherished for the opportunity to pen the words about this talented kid in the article. The kid is a real inspiration for his daring attitude, determination, decision making and dedication for what he believes.

In the Aerobotic7 website, there is a statement - "Harshawardhan Zala is a 14 year old student who isn't just another teenager figuring out his life. He is Smart Tech Developer, Inventor, Programmer, Tinkerer, Speaker, Mentor, Entrepreneur and a Student.This child prodigy from Gujarat has just got International Peace Award (Billion Acts Hero Awards (2017) and he is the only one from whole Asia to get this from Nobel Laureate held in Monaco, recently."

When I went through this description of Master Zala in his startup's website, I just got amazed and remembered my old days when I really wanted and even planned to just do such things but never put them into actions out of laziness which of-course is out of this topic altogether, Sticking to this topic, Harshawardhan is from a normal family like any of ours. His father is an accountant and mother a home-maker.

Now you might be thinking what is so special about being a Founder of a Tech Startup and having website for it. It is special because this company is giving life to its CEO's dream who is just a 14 year old kid. This company is about making this child's intangible talent and knowledge on drones tangible by producing the drones, explore the possibility of using them in commercial and military surveillance  applications thus making the world a better and safer place to live.

During 2016, Master Zala started a project involving development of 3 prototypes costing him INR 5 Lakhs. Funding for first two which is about INR 2 Lakhs was by his parents and remaining was funded by the state.

In his words while in an interview, Master Zala stated - "Inspiration struck when I was watching television and learned that a large number of soldiers succumb to injuries sustained due to lanmine blasts while diffusing them manually."

Since then he determined to materialize this idea of designing and producing a drone. The drone are equipped with Infrared, RGB Sensor and thermal meter along with a 21 MP camera with a mechanical shutter that can take high resolution pictures. The drone also carries a bomb weighing 50 grams that can be used to destroy the landmine. This gadget is designed to send waves that cover 8 sq m area while flying at 2 m above the ground. Once it detects a landmine, it will communicate the location to base station.

In "Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit (2017) , the child champion even bagged a Rs 5cr worth MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) with Department of Science and Technology of Gujarat Government for production of a drone designed by him and explore the possibility of using them  for commercial applications.

Zala had even visited headquarters of Google Inc., US, where he shared a project idea with several investors after observing the way they work. This is at that point where Zala got desire to patent and produce the drones. He expressed in an interview about his trip as - "This was part of all-expenses paid trip to the US that was part of a prize I won during an Innovation event of LD college of engineering. Now, I need to inform these investors about the MoU and I am sure they will be ready to invest in my company," said Zala who wants to make his company bigger than Apple Inc. or even Google Inc.

I would like to end this article by stating that people are generally of three types - 

First one don't get involved in anything. Second kind just do something for livelihood and sleep to live their actual dreams and interests. The third ones put up some bravery, wake up once they get a dream and do not mentally sleep till they achieve what they have dreamed of. Its up-to one's choice in to which the one wants to fit in.

Jai Hind!!!