Neelakanta Bhanu Prakash, a 20-year-old boy from Hyderabad has become the fastest human calculator in the world after winning the first-ever gold medal for India in Mental Calculation World Championship at Mind Sports Olympiad (MSO).
Neelakanta overtook the title of the fastest human calculator in the world from Indian mathematical genius, Shakuntala Devi.
Prakash holds several world records along with 50 Limca records for being the fastest human calculator in the world all of which were earlier accredited to Shakuntala Devi.
MSO is the most prestigious international competition for games of mental skill and mind sports which is held in London every year since 1988. The championship was held in London on August 15, Indian Independence Day.
Speaking on his achievements to a news agency, Bhanu Prakash said, “Breaking these records, once held by Math maestros like Scott Flansburg and Shakuntala Devi, is a matter of national pride. I have done my bit to place India on the global level of mathematics.”
The world record holder is a student of Mathematics (Hons.) at Delhi University’s St Stephen College.
Championship held virtually amid the pandemic
The championship was held virtually to avoid human contact due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. About 30 participants up to 57 years from 13 nations including the UK, Germany, UAE, France, Greece, and Lebanon took part in the MSO.
Bhanu Prakash won the competition by securing 65 points followed by a Lebanese contender in the second position and a UAE contender, who bagged the third position.
The judges were absolutely fascinated by Bhanu Prakash’s speed.
“I won the gold medal with a clear margin of 65 points. The judges were so spellbound by my speed, that they required me to perform more calculations to confirm my accuracy,” he shared.
Future endeavor
Speaking about his future endeavors Prakash said that he wanted to create “VISION Math” labs and reach out to millions of children to make them start loving the subject.
“My vision is to create math labs, reach out to millions of children, under what I call in order to make them start loving math and arithmetic calculations. Three out of every four students who study in the government schools of India have trouble understanding basic Mathematics. The phobia caused by math and the demotivation is the number two cause for kids opting out of the rural schools in India,” Prakash said.
“For any country to develop and thrive globally, numeracy is as important a skill as literacy is. Under the government’s listed goals, there are a lot of programs which emphasize on increasing the literacy, but as of now, there is no significant program or vision in increasing the mathematical abilities and numeracy which can put us ahead in the global race. Our visionary Prime Minister Narendra Modi should take the lead as I want to initiate and take ‘VISION MATH’ of India ahead. A robust plan like this will put India on the global map of excellence and bring back the old Indian Math Glory,” he further narrated.
Congratulations on achieving this feat, Neelakanta. May you remain triumphant in all your future endeavors.