SAEINDIA and Mahindra inaugurates the 13th edition of BAJA SAEINDIA 2020, today at Pithampur
Pithampur: The first day of Mahindra presents BAJA SAEINDIA 2020 began with an inauguration by the Chief Guest Mr. Paramjeet Singh, Asst. Director, AICTE and the Guest of Honour, Ms. Shivani Pruthvi. Other dignitaries present were Mr. Prabhu Venkatesh, Chief GM, BPCL and Mr. Sanjay Kshirsagar, Plant Head – Mahindra Two Wheeler Division, Pithampur. Dr. N. Karuppaiah, Addt. Director – NATRiP gave the welcome address on behalf of NATRiP, Dr. K C Vora, Sr. Dy. Director-ARAI gave the welcome address on behalf of SAEINDIA.
The Guest of Honour was Ms. Shivani Pruthvi, the first woman driver to represent India in Asia Auto Gymkhana Championship 2019 and is also a part of Ahura Racing, India’s first All Women Racing Team formed in 2017. She is an MBBS student talking about Girls, Gears and Gasoline wherein she acknowledged that women are rapidly gaining recognition across the spectrum of motorsports. She encouraged the women participants at the event to display fearlessness and perseverance. This time we have 5 All Girls team participating at BAJA SAEINDIA 2020, Pithampur.
Commenting on the event, the Chief Guest, Mr. Paramjeet Singh said, “Over the years, BAJA has grown in popularity. It serves as a platform for young engineering talent to showcase their skills & acquire a real life experience, while overcoming obstacles & challenges. It is a great platform for our young engineers to perform & present their innovation.” He also explained the various schemes being run by AICTE for the development of students, faculty and institutions. He specially emphasized on the scheme “Support to students for participating in competition abroad”, through which a financial support of Rs.10 Lakhs is provided by AICTE to the team of students for participating in International competitions abroad. He also explained the scheme, where students gets a grant of Rs.1 Lakh and Faculty gets a grant of Rs.1.5 Lakhs for presenting their Research Paper in International Conferences abroad.
Buggies from teams of DY Patil College of Engineering, Pune and Nirma Institute of Technology, Ahmedabad were unveiled as a representative of mBAJA and eBAJA respectively.
A day before, 1700 students from 3rd year and 4th year of engineering underwent their BAJA Aptitude Test (BAT), a preliminary qualifying round for the HR-Meet scheduled on 27th and 28th January 2020 at Acropolis Institute of Technology, Indore. The technical inspection started yesterday, whereby 85 teams appeared for mBAJA and 25 teams appeared for eBAJA as on today. The technical inspection will continue for tomorrow.
The Sales Presentation and Cost Evaluation were completed today with the help of the 100 judges from the automotive industry. Evaluation for Dronacharya award for the best faculty started today and will continue until tomorrow, for 200 faculty advisors. The Go Green event was also held today whereby approximately 50 teams gave presentation on after treatment devices to meet strict emission norms. Parallelly, the judges evaluated teams for Innovation award as well as for the CAE award.
The guests visited the pits, where students fine tune their buggies and interacted with them. They were delighted to witness women participation and also students from electronics and electrical background, besides Mechanical and Automotive backgrounds. One of the All Girls Team from MKSSS’s Cummins College of Engineering for Women, Pune also participated at BAJA International event in Tennessee Tech University, USA. The Indian Team captain, Ms. Rutuja Waskar said, “BAJA is not just a Technical competition but a journey that transforms our skills altogether. It gives us a hands-on experience of designing, manufacturing and validating our concepts into reality. Our Team has been participating for past 7 years at BAJA SAEINDIA which has helped us, an All Girls team, to perform at our best at the International platform“.