Some moments matter less for where you stood and more for what they confirmed. For me, one of those moments came in January 2017, when NAVALT was named a winner of the MEA–NITI Aayog National Contest on Social Innovation, and I received the award from the Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi, at Pravasi Bharatiya Divas on the 9th of January.
It is difficult to describe what it feels like to have an idea you have argued for, defended, and at times almost given up on, recognised on a national stage by the country’s leadership. The contest, run by the Ministry of External Affairs together with NITI Aayog, set out to find ideas that did not just innovate technically but changed something real in people’s lives. To be counted among those winners told us that solar-electric boats were no longer a fringe experiment. They were being seen, at the highest level, as a serious answer to a serious problem.
The problem had always seemed almost absurd to me. We burn diesel to move people across water, between the sun above and the sea below, two of the cleanest sources of energy we have. We pollute the very element we are crossing. NAVALT was built to end that contradiction, to make marine transport cleaner, quieter, and cheaper for ordinary commuters who deserve all three.
What made that January week unforgettable was its timing. Just three days after receiving the award, on the 12th of January 2017, we inaugurated Aditya, India’s first solar-electric ferry. The recognition and the launch arrived almost in the same breath. One was the country saying the idea mattered. The other was the idea proving itself on the water, carrying real passengers, saving real fuel, running on sunlight. Standing in that hall in early January and then watching Aditya glide out days later, I understood that an award is only meaningful if it is followed by the work it points to.
Aditya went on to do exactly what we hoped. It has carried lakhs of passengers, saved lakhs of litres of diesel, and put crores of rupees back into the public purse, all while running quietly and cleanly. The contest win was an early vote of confidence in that future, given before most of it had happened.
I have always believed that entrepreneurship is nation building, that it is wealth creation, job creation, and the slow work of leaving a country a little better than you found it. To be honoured for that by the Prime Minister, alongside others who were trying to solve hard problems for their fellow citizens, was a reminder of why we started and of how far the work still had to go.
Oceans was my choice. Go find yours.
Sandith Thandasherry 