9-yr-old differently-abled boy gets child innovator award

The award and a cheque of Rs one lakh was presented to Hridayeshwar Singh Bhati, a class-IV student of Delhi Public School, by Sri Balaji society president A Balasubramanian at a function attended by the Rajasthan PWD minister Bharat Singh.

Despite suffering from duchenne muscular dystrophy, a progressive degenerative disorder of muscle tissue which affects only males, Hridayeshwar has set an exemplary example by getting a patent for his invention of six-player circular chess for which he was honoured today.

He developed a version of circular chess for two, three, four and six players and got patent for the same in March, thus becoming the youngest patent holder in the country and the world's youngest differently-abled person to have patent, his father S S Bhati said.

"Hridayeshwar inspires and motivates everyone and gives a great message of motivation to achieve despite hardship," Balasubramanian said.

The boy said that he conceived the idea for developing such chess board after he came to know that no chess board for people more than four was available.

His father, a math teacher who assisted him in developing the design, said that the boy was now working on an advanced version of his innovation and patent for that design would also be filed soon.