mumbai saturday night saw a unique awards ceremony honouring sikh achievers whose profiles were as varied and interesting as they come each was a sabat soorat sikh who maintains the traditional look with turban or head cover beard and kada that is prescribed for followers of the religion the winners spanned a 17yearold space technology entrepreneur from jammu to a diver from a haryana village who retrieves people cattle and crocodiles from rivers and canalsthe annual sikh achievers awards ceremony at shanmukhananda hall on april 29 felicitated extraordinary individuals and organisations from the community who have excelled in their fields of activity businessmen who operate with a social conscience are also encouragedthe awards are helmed by sanjha parivaar and sat sri akaal charitable trust sardar puran singh banga general secretary of the ssa trust said we are organising these awards since 15 years especially to encourage sikhs who maintain the sabat soorat wearing long hair kada and essential symbols of the faith while they scale new heights in their career we invite sikh men and women from all parts of the world to apply in eight categories we do research on the shortlisted nominees and prepare video profiles of winners which are screened at the awards ceremonythis year the youngest winner was 17yearold onkar singh batra of jammu who had coded his own website at the age of seven and wrote a book partly challenging albert einsteins theory in 2018 the class 12 student said i now run a startup that offers open source satellite technology to anyone who is interested the idea is to not patent or commercialise this technology and instead grant ready access to space geeks for freeanother set of winners karan chhabra and amar preet are the founders of a shoe company that creates sustainable footwear their firm neeman shoes has introduced sneakers made from recycled pet bottles and slippers crafted from recycled tyres the duo plans to convert 10 million discarded plastic bottles into sneakers by 2025the inspirational sandeep kaur is on a mission to combat female foeticide her trust provides a safe haven for nearly 200 girls who have experienced hardship and struggle while paramjeet singhs dharma bharati mission has provided eight million meals to slum children among multiple social initiatives loud applause greeted pragat singh gotakhor diver who at the age of 35 has reportedly saved 2100 people from drowning in rivers and canals in the past 24 years he has a welldocumented history of crocodile rescues he said i started diving while grazing cattle in my village in kurukshetra now i am called to delhi rajasthan haryana and punjab i often remove my turban to wrap the bodies of lifeless women singh has rescued 16 dreaded crocodiles from the bhakra nangal dam saturday was the first time pragat singh traveled by airplane and was presented rs1 lakh for his daughters marriage by the organisershemkunt foundation a nonprofit provided oxygen support ambulance services and cooked meals for people during the covid lockdown the