Youth’s efforts recognized

PATNA: The ‘Shoonya’ initiative by 21-year-old Ravi Kumar of Patna has been selected among the top 50 in the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN)-Youth Solutions Report for 2018. The report examines innovations for sustainable development and proposes recommendations to create more integrated ecosystems of support for youth change makers.

Ravi claimed his is the only initiative from India to have figured in the report this year. He said his initiative was selected for its contribution and potential towards achieving the sustainable development goals. “'Our initiative ‘Shoonya’ is a cyber security initiative that trains civilians, who are using technology without actually knowing its threats. We specialize people in understanding personal cyber security by conducting free seminars, workshops, webinars and other social activities. ‘Shoonya’ is to bring a revolution in cyber education so that people recognize cyber threats and keep them secure,”' Ravi told this newspaper.

Sharing the details of training programmes and seminars organized across the state, ‘Shoonya’ co-founder Apoorva Sharma said, “More than 50,000 people from Patna and other areas of the state have received cyber security training from us. We have covered around 30 educational institutions, including Chandragupta Institute of Management (CIMP) in Patna, regional centre of IGNOU in Patna and other schools and colleges. At present, we aim to conduct seminars in 15 schools of Patna from August with focus on children in Class VI to XII. The three-hour seminar will teach students to protect their information assets, identify cyber security threats, online banking phishing scams and other ways of social media security.”