BENGALURU: 10-year-old Veer Kashyap from Bengaluru, studying in Army Public School, New Delhi, will receive the Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar 2021 for excellence in the field of innovation. He innovated a board game not just to kill his own boredom during lockdown, but to educate and create awareness among others about the situation prevailing in the world.
He named the board game ‘Corona Yuga’ by designing the infamous coronavirus shape on a cardboard, using materials available at home.
He tested his game several times and then posted it on YouTube, where it went viral. ‘Corona Yuga’ teaches safety guidelines to survive a pandemic by adopting behavioural change, and is dedicated to Covid warriors. The board game reflects the period of quarantine, importance of use of hand sanitiser, social distancing, mask-wearing, among others.
Veer is originally from Delhi, but developed the board game around Covid- 19 — which is now available online — during his prolonged lockdown vacation at his paternal grandparents’ home in Bengaluru.