NIF's innovation award for schoolchildren named after Kalam

National Innovation Foundation (NIF), the autonomous body under the Department of Science and Technology, today said its prestigious IGNITE awards will be named after the former President APJ Abdul Kalam, who passed away on July 27.
"NIF has decided to commemorate IGNITE awards in his memory as 'Dr APJ Abdul Kalam IGNITE awards' so that the creative children continue to draw inspiration from his spirit," Chief Innovation Officer of NIF Dr Vipin Kumar told PTI.
"NIF will continue to announce the awards of IGNITE competition every year on October 15, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam's birthday, which is celebrated as the Children's Creativity and Innovation Day," added Kumar.

Till 2014 Dr Kalam had attended every IGNITE award function to felicitate the school children who come out with an original idea or innovation since inception of the award in 2008.
The 'IGNITE' part of the name comes from title of Kalam's popular book 'The ignited minds', Kumar said.
From 2008, 142 IGNITE awards were given to 202 children at the hands of Dr Kalam. The total number of submissions from schoolchildren received in the various IGNITE campaigns is 71,200.