new delhi i would say that the award was for india said sonam wangchuk of the rolex awards for enterprise that he won this year the honour is conferred on individuals involved in extraordinary projects that have the capacity to improve lives or preserve world culture even without the publicity surrounding his latest achievement the lehbased mechanical engineer and educationist isnt an unknown name being popularly considered to have inspired the character of phunsuk wangdu the protagonist of aamir khans film 3 idiots but mass adulation is far from the 50yearolds mind his focus is on helping the people of his desertified ladakhfrom disadvantaged students to farmers despairing over lack of waterspeaking at the future talks event organised by think tank future institute on friday wangchuk gave a peep into how his mind works he knew of padma shri awardee chewang norphels idea of using artificial glaciers for irrigating the arid fields of ladkah but he took it to another level in the process halting the alltooquick evaporation of the glacier in the summer sun by devising a pyramid of ice i constructed a vertical ice structure that is conical in shape and resembles the traditional buddhist stupa said wangchuk he explained that since a cone geometrically has the minimum surface area but the maximum volume the shape protects the ice from being too exposed to the suns heat ingeniously he also employed gravitational force to access the water the meltwater seeps into buried pipes where the difference in height and pressure causes the water to rise and erupt out from an opening at the top the water emerges in droplets that have less latent heat it would freeze instantly in temperatures of under 20 degrees celsius he pointed outwangchuks stupas have helped villagers irrigate their cropland as well as water the 500 trees planted in the barren expansehowever this is not wangchuks sole achievement since the early 1990s he had been running the students educational and cultural movement of ladakh secmol it is a selfreliant solarpowered school that takes in students who are rejected by conventional education said wangchuk claiming that being forced to study languages such as english and urdu led to 95 of students failing their exams wangchuk said he collaborated with the state government and the village community to reform the government school systems under operation new hope and reversed the pass percentage spectacularly the innovator hopes to start the himalayan institute of alternatives with the subjects of focus there being mountain development and solutions to problems that mountain people face it will offer courses in farming tourism and businesses suited to mountains and will generate its finances from the innovations of the students he said