M&M-trained students to represent India in 'Jet Toy Olympics:2009'

Three member team- Aditya Londhe, Varun Kasat and Pallak Nimani, all from Nashik-based Ashoka Universal School, has been selected for international-level Jet Toy Olympics:2009 to be held in USA, on 22nd April 2009. These three students were trained by the auto major Mahindra & Mahindra under its CSR (Common Social Responsibility) Project- ‘A World in Motion’ (AWIM).

The Jet Joy Olympics is in its third year and approximately 125 teams (one team will include three students each) will participate to create and race balloon-powered toy cars. These three students had won recently held ‘AWIM National Olympics’ in Chennai.

Considering the need of highly qualified trained manpower for auto industry in future and as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives, the automotive major Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) has taken initiative to develop engineering skills among select students in the age group of 7-12 years.

“Mahindra has always focused on education as one of its core corporate social responsibility areas as it firmly believes that education is an enabler that leads to a better quality of life. ‘AWIM’ is a movement to catch the fantasy of the youngsters and motivate them to express their creativity through automobiles as hobby now and hopefully as a profession in future,” Nitin Ranade, Vice-President, Automotive Sector, M&M, said at a press conference.

“We consider ‘Jet Toy Challenge Olympics’ a golden opportunity to show a technical spark at a very young age. Our students have proved that they can think beyond academics and represent India and Nashik at international level. It is aptly in tune with our endeavour to make the Ashokites the ‘global citizen of tomorrow,” said Ashok Katariya, Chairman of Ashoka Universal School and Ashoka Group.

The company, in association with the Society of Automobile Engineers (SAE) India, had launched an innovative programme - AWIM (A World in Motion) in Nashik in August 2007 to make the challenges of maths and science exciting by bringing authentic engineering design experiences into the classroom.