Twenty-year-old Neelakantha Bhanu Prakash of Hyderabad has emerged as the fastest human calculator in the world after winning first-ever gold for India in the Mental Calculation World Championship at Mind Sports Olympiad (MSO) held in London recently. “After beating 29 competitors, up to 57 years of age, from 13 countries, I won the gold medal with a clear margin of 65 points. The judges were spellbound by my speed and they further required more calculations to confirm my accuracy,” said Neelkantha Bhanu Prakash.
In order to be the fastest human calculator, he also made four world records and 50 Limca records
Bhanu Prakash, 21, is a graduate in Mathematics from St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi. After achieving this feat, Bhanu Prakash said that in order to be the world’s fastest human calculator, he also made four world records and 50 Limca records. It may be noted that Neelkanth is also giving online classes to children from 8th to 12th class which began during the lockdown phase. “They proudly say that my mind moves faster than a calculator. These records were the names of great mathematicians like Scott Flansberg and Shakuntala Devi. Breaking these records is a matter of national honour for me,”adds Neelkantha.
? for India at Mental Calculation World Championship, MSO ??
4 World Records – Fastest Human Calculator
These are just titles. My vision is to eradicate math phobia in ?? and with @expinfi I reached to over a 2L students this lockdown though a project. There's a long way to go pic.twitter.com/DVJSrUFoIN— Neelakantha Bhanu Prakash J (@bhanuprakashjn) August 24, 2020
This is the first time an Indian has won a gold medal in this Olympiad
This is also the first time that an Indian has won a gold medal at the Mind Sports Olympiad. The current edition was held in London on 15 August this year. It is considered to be the most respected competition in the world in mental efficiency and mind games. Held in London every year, this time the Mind Sports Olympiad was conducted virtually. It saw participants from Britain, Germany, United Arab Emirates, France, Greece and Lebanon. The first Olympiad was held in 1998.
“My vision is to create math labs, reach out to millions of children, to make them start loving math and arithmetic calculations. Three out of every four students who study in the government schools of India have trouble in understanding basic Mathematics. The phobia caused by math and the demotivation is the number two cause for kids opting out of the rural schools in India,” he said.
Our visionary Prime Minister Narendra Modi should take the lead as I want to initiate and take ‘VISION MATH’ of India ahead. A robust plan like this will put India on the global map of excellence and bring back the old Indian Math Glory,” he added.
