Jaswant Gembali, a student of Allen Career Institute Kota, preparing for the All India Pre-Medical Test (AIPMT), has won the OLX Ideathon 2015 Award for his innovative idea on the Swacch Bharat Mission. The Ideathon ran a campaign under the theme ‘My Country My Idea’, where Jaswant’s idea was selected amongst the 10 best ideas for the Swacch Bharat Mission. He received the award from tennis star Sania Mirza at an award function in Gurgaon earlier this month.

Nearly 30,000 students of 8th – 12th classes from 100 schools across 10 cities in India participated in the contest, generating 550 ideas. The jury which selected the winners comprised movie director Sudhir Mishra, environmentalist Sunita Narayan, tennis star Sania Mirza and Irvinipreet Singh Anand of OLX.

Jaswant, who is from Jeypore in Odisha, got the idea to convert vegetable market waste into manure after visiting the vegetable market in Mahavir Nagar, Kota. This will help keep the market clean and also help increase the earnings of vegetable vendors. “Vendors can collect the waste from the market while closing their shops every evening, and transform it into manure”, said Jaswant. “They can also sell the manure in the market, and get some extra money as well,” he stated. He continued that vendors can drop all their garbage in a common bin which the local municipal body can collect at the end of the day to convert into manure. Garbage collection will help keep the city clean, and the manure will help boost agricultural production.

Sania Mirza described Jaswant’s idea as a ‘Game Changer Idea’ while handing over the award.

Jaswant has also written 5 novels including ‘Nature Fuller’, ‘Stop It Police’, and ‘True Determination of Your Behavior’. He wants to research on the brain after joining a medical college.

Allen Career Institute, Kota, director Naveen Maheshwari said that Allen motivated students like Jaswant to participate in such competitions, and they were happy that Jaswant’s success made everyone proud.