Aswatha Narayana wins gold in World Skills event in Russia

Don't want to miss the best from Business Standard?

Aswatha Narayana, who bagged a gold medal in the World Skills event in Kazan, Russia has said he felt pride in representing and winning for the country.

He also said that it was the first time that an Indian contingent was participating in the tournament.

"I participated in the world skills tournament in the skill water technology and I have won the gold medal for the country. It is a proud feeling for me, this journey began 10 months ago with the national competition. This skill is a new thing and India competing in the tournament for the first time, it was a tough journey but a challenging one," Narayana told ANI.

Narayana completed his graduation in electronics and instrumentation engineering from CV Raman Engineering College in Bhubaneswar. This gold medal is the first for India in the history of the tournament.

World skill international competition was established in the year 1950. India started participating in the tournament from 2007.

This year, the competition had 47 competitors in 44 skill categories.

"It has been a great experience of learning for me. Our strategy was to do the best. The hard work has paid off for us and we have the medal to show for it. The competition has been around for a long time. It is termed as the Olympics of Skills," Narayana said.

"Countries from all over the world participate in the tournament. We had 47 competitors in this competition. We have 1 gold, 1 silver, 2 bronze and 15 medallions of excellence and this is the best performance for India till India," he added.

Narayana briefed about water technology as a skill and he said that scarcity of water is an issue that needs to be addressed. He went on to say that if countries do not act upon it, then two out of every three people will be out of water.

"Water technology is a new skill and it is related to the wastewater treatment sector. We deal with the challenges that we face in the wastewater treatment plant, the sewage systems, and importance of having portable water reused and treated, that's what we deal with as challenge and skill," Narayana said.

"It demands knowledge and various fields of engineering like chemical, electrical auto mission, and mechanical work. 80 per cent of water in the world is going untreated. It is important that every country takes this up as a serious issue.

"If that happens, two out of three people will end up with scarcity of water by 2025. It is important we preserve water and we need to have large facilities for our cities to save water," he added.