Thirteen-year-old adventure mountaineer Kamya Karthikeyan has won the Prime Minister's Rasthriya Bal Puraskar.
Karthikeyan is the youngest climber to conquer the 6,962 meters-high Mount Aconcagua in the Andes Mountains in South America. She is the daughter of Palakkad native and Mumbai-based Naval Commander S Karthikeyan and Chennai native Lavanya.
The Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar, formerly known as the National Child Award for Exceptional Achievement, is India's Highest Civilian Honour bestowed upon exceptional achievers under the age of 18.
The 32 children who got awards in various spheres include Hridaya R Krishnan of Thiruvananthapuram and Balan Veer Kashyap, a Karnataka native residing in Kochi. Hridaya bagged the award for her extraordinary talent in veena recital.
Veer Kashyap won the award for creating a board game "Corona Yug" during the lockdown period. He is a student of fifth standard of Navy Children's School, Southern Naval Command, Kochi and son of Karnataka natives Commander K Vinayak and H C Sangeetha.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacted with the 32 award winning children via video conferencing. He tweeted congratulatory messages for each award winner.