Mandadi Sreeha Reddy Deshmukh says that the world is looking at India for global solutions and their team’s idea was chosen from among 19 projects from across the world and will soon be implemented in Malaysia, Africa and other countries later this year
HYDERABAD: Just when computer science graduate Sreeha Reddy Deskmukh was wondering how the algorithms she learned in college could ever be useful to her in real life, she was pleasantly surprised to realise that it helped her forumulate an award-winning social idea at the 6th Leaders Conference from July 14-26 in Busan, Korea. She was one among the two from India (the other from Manipal) who represented the country at this event hosted by International Youth Fellowship (IYF), a worldwide youth organisation which raises leaders with a global insight through youth education, activities and provide realistic solutions to problems in the global village.
Sreeha is a proactive youngster who has been taking part in idea seminars and her presentation almost got her an invite to present her idea on a global level in 2012, but her exams kept her busy then. This time around when IYF reached out to her again, she decided to use the opportunity. 300 young thought leaders, known as Ministers in IYF jargon, from 20 countries got about 15 minutes to present any solution that they thought could resolve problems of the world. After the presentation, ideas are tossed around and a solution is formulated with inputs from all quarters and the top three ideas are presented to the participating countries for them to pick up what works for them.
In that context, Sreeha from Habsiguda, Hyderabad, decided to kill two birds with one shot. After four months of Skype calls and hundreds of WhatsApp chats and back and forth emails, she managed to find four workable modules through which youth unemployment and the need for clean surroundings were mapped to feed onto each other and become a single solution resolving both the problems. “Right now, I am bound by some rules and cannot discuss the solution in detail, but I am told that a few governments have and MoU with IYF to implement it in their states.”
Barring having to encounter creepy crawly deep fried octopuses on her breakfast table, she says she found the trip to Korea largely enriching. I even got offers from the US and Ukraine to do a PhD on the subject in their universities. I am astounded to know the power of ideas,” she says delightedly. “My vision, roadmap, and plan of action for the project is what made them offer that,” she says. Sreeha’s one-year stint in Google and as the head of a school and her experience in conducting skill development courses besides her passion for the environment (where she understood and researched solid waste management) helped her to come up with the idea. “If all goes well, India too may adopt this solution and nothing can be better than that,” she states excitedly.
However, this 20-plusser says it was a team effort as she also had help from six Korean and one each from India, Indonesia, South Africa and the Philippines besides two mentors who helped her present her idea effectively. Right now, she is getting over her jetlag, but says that the next few months will mean a bit of travel for consultations discussions from countries that will finally adopt her idea. “This is one time I don’t mind keeping myself free to ensure my small idea makes a huge impact.”
Meeting Movers & Shakers
I met Hanna Davydenko, Rector at Vinnytsya Institute of University, Ukraine, who shared that 4 % of industry jobs are reserved for the disabled. In India, the number of disbled is bigger and we can adopt such practices here and create jobs they are good at, based on their strengths
What india won!
The citation reads: “Best project with an outstanding idea and active attitude”. The idea is scalable and can be implemented in any part of the globe. The winning team will be working with the countries to take it forward
— Manju Latha Kalanidhi kalanidhi
@newindianexpress.com
@mkalanidhi