Sahasak Nimavum Awards recognises the innovation of Sri Lanka’s amateur inventors

By David Ebert

The awards ceremony of the Sahasak Nimevum Exhibition was held on 6 December at the SBMEC Auditorium at the BMICH. Altogether, over 200 winners, selected by an eminent panel of judges appointed by the Sri Lanka Inventors Commission, were presented with awards and certificates at the event.

The overall winners of each of the participating categories, classified as school, university and technical colleges and an open category, were presented with the prestigious Dialog DASIS Awards. Dasis is another name by which King Ravana is known. His mythical representation as a ten-headed deity with the innate ability to approach any conundrum from a multitude of angles is the inspiration for naming this award.

History credits Ravana as the inventor of the ‘Dandu Monara’, also known as the Flying Peacock, the first ever aircraft to grace our skies as stated in the great Indian epic the Ramayana. The award is named after him in an attempt to bridge a link between national heritage and modern day invention.

Speaking at the ceremony, Dialog Axiata Group Chief Marketing Officer Amali Nanayakkara, said: “Dialog is in the business of bringing every Sri Lankan the future today. As such, an affiliation with the Sri Lanka Inventors Commission (SLIC) and Dialog in bringing forth the talent of these inventors and entrepreneurs of the future is undoubtedly based upon a strong strategic fit between our brand and the Sahasak Nimevum Exhibition and Awards.”

“We are keen to support the winners of the Dialog DASIS Awards in realising their ambitions by offering them the opportunity to tap into our vast experience as a corporate entity in order to obtain guidance that will open up avenues towards commercialising their inventions.”

In addition to the technical fields, seven fields in the national interest segment were considered for presentation of special awards. Awards were presented to the best inventions in the national interest fields of making the disabled independent, food, energy, environment, teaching aids, human safety, and substitute imports.

Each of the seven segments had submissions from the school students, university/technical students and open categories. The prizes and the trophies for these categories were sponsored and provided by the Brandix Group. A total of 13 overall winners were selected from the segment sponsored by Brandix.

“The participation of aspiring inventors in the Sahasak Nimevum exhibition and the quality of innovation was most encouraging,” a spokesman for Brandix said. “As a business that thrives on innovation, and one that has made empowering people a corporate credo, Brandix is pleased with the outcome, and looks forward to seeing many of these inventions making a difference in peoples’ lives.”

“While applauding the efforts of the winners of this national exhibition, we pledge to support anyone who comes to us with an innovative idea that has the potential to evolve into something groundbreaking,” the spokesman added.   

Interestingly, all 22 technical fields were represented with novel entries. As expected there were a significant number of entries from the school category. There was equal interest from all nine provinces including the North and the East reflecting the renewed hope and enthusiasm of these areas as well as providing hope for the spirit of innovation to burn brightly into the future.

Pix by Upul Abayasekara