The problem Transcribe addresses
Sign language solves communication between people who both know it. The gap it leaves is everyone else: the shopkeeper, the teacher, the stranger who never learned. The government's description of Transcribe puts the device squarely in that gap, as an affordable wearable enabling communication between hearing-impaired individuals and others unfamiliar with sign language.
Two words in that description carry the design brief. Affordable sets a price ceiling that rules out most assistive hardware, and wearable rules out anything a user has to set up before a conversation starts. The official record does not describe the components or the software, so this page does not either.
The award
The Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar was conferred by the President of India, Ram Nath Kovind, at Rashtrapati Bhawan in New Delhi on 22 January 2019. Twenty-six children were honoured, each receiving a medal, a cash prize of one lakh rupees, book vouchers worth ten thousand rupees, a certificate and a citation.
The Press Information Bureau lists him as Master Madhav Lavakare, in the innovation category, from Delhi. The innovation category is one of six, alongside scholastic achievement, sports, art and culture, social service and bravery.
Twenty-six children, 783 applications
The Ministry of Women and Child Development selected the 26 Bal Shakti Puraskar recipients from 783 applications. A second arm of the same award, the Bal Kalyan Puraskar, recognises individuals and institutions working for children, and in 2019 went to two individuals and three institutions.
The numbers are worth holding in view when reading any single citation. An award given to twenty-six children in a country of more than a billion is a narrow gate, and the innovation winners are a fraction of that.
The meeting with the Prime Minister
On 24 January 2019 the winners met Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who said the awards offer an opportunity for recognition of talented children, and serve as inspiration for others like them. He encouraged them to stay connected with nature.
The Prime Minister's Office published descriptions of the children's work alongside its account of the meeting, and that is where the public description of Transcribe appears. It remains the fullest account of the device in the sources used here.
What is documented - and what is not
Firm: the award, the category, the state, the date, the prize components and the one-sentence description of Transcribe, all from two Government of India publications.
Not documented here: how the device works, what it costs, whether it reached users, and what Lavakare has done since. No birth year, age, school, photograph or quotation from him appears in the sources used here. Later coverage may exist, but it was not consulted for this page, and nothing is asserted that these two documents do not support. An assistive device is easy to describe generously and hard to describe accurately, and the honest version of this page is the short one.
| Person | Country | Milestone | Age / Stat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Evann Sun | United States | An invention award at 14 for glasses that read printed pages aloud to stud | Age 14 |
| Akhil Nagori | United States | Cheap glasses that turn printed text into speech, built for students who c | Age 15 |
| Madhav Lavakare | India | Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar 2019, innovation | — |
| Jonah Kohn | United States | Winning the 13-14 category, 2012 Google Science Fair | — |
| Daniel Kazantsev | Russia | LEGO Education Builder Award, Google Science Fair 2019 | — |
What is documented — and what is not
✓ Documented
- Received the Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar in the innovation category, Delhi, 2019 (Press Information Bureau)
- The Prime Minister's Office describes Transcribe as an affordable wearable enabling communication between hearing-impaired people and others unfamiliar with sign language
- Awards conferred by President Ram Nath Kovind at Rashtrapati Bhawan on 22 January 2019
? Unverified, disputed or wrong
- No technical description, price or distribution information for Transcribe
- No published birth year, age or school
- No information about him or the device after 2019 in the sources used here
Questions people ask about Madhav Lavakare
What is Madhav Lavakare known for?
Winning India's Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar for innovation in 2019 for Transcribe, an affordable wearable device that enables communication between hearing-impaired people and others who do not know sign language.
What does Transcribe do?
The Prime Minister's Office describes it as an affordable wearable enabling communication between hearing-impaired individuals and people unfamiliar with sign language. No technical description appears in the sources used here.
How old is Madhav Lavakare?
No source used here gives an age or birth year.
Where is he from?
Delhi, according to the Press Information Bureau's list of awardees.
What does the award include?
A medal, a cash prize of one lakh rupees, book vouchers worth ten thousand rupees, a certificate and a citation.
How many children received the award?
Twenty-six, selected from 783 applications by the Ministry of Women and Child Development.
Is Madhav Lavakare on Wikipedia?
No Wikipedia article on him was found. The record here rests on two Government of India publications.
Is Transcribe available to buy?
Nothing in the sources used here says whether the device was produced, priced or distributed.
Quick quiz: how well do you know Madhav’s story?
What is Transcribe?
Which award did Madhav Lavakare receive?
Where was the award conferred?
Sources
- PM interacts with winners of Rashtriya Bal Puraskar 2019 — Prime Minister's Office of India, 2019-01-24
- President of India confers 'Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar' today in New Delhi — Press Information Bureau, Government of India, 2019-01-22
Checked by the Geniuses.club editorial team. Ages are given as of September 2026.
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