Gurgaon student creates an app for para-athletes

He was recently appointed as the ‘Awareness and Impact Ambassador’ by the Paralympic Committee of India (PCI), and has been actively associated with the Incheon Para Asian Games in October 2014 and the Para National Games in March 2015. Intelligent and witty, 16-year-old Arhan Bagati is an athlete himself. He is a class XI student, who has designed a mobile application called InRio, that comprises useful information for the Rio de Janeiro-bound para-athletes of 2016 Games.

Para-athletes — athletes with a physical disability — will now be able to get basic information and emergency contacts to list of places to visit in Rio (Brazil) with their numbers, address and maps, among other features, via this app. “The app aims to increase the strength of the Indian paralympic contingent from a current number of around 15-20 to at least 150 for the Tokyo Games in 2020 by creating awareness, and getting athletes to train them. There are health tips to be given by a nutritionist too; each athlete will get a specialised set of diet before and after their specific events,” Bagati says.

Ask him how the idea came about, and Bagati says, “All para-athletes inspire me. When the Ghaziabad fiasco (shabby treatment of paraathletes) occurred in the Para National Games in March, I realised that it was not organised well. And the reason was the improper co-ordination and collation. After brainstorming with my dad, Tapesh Bagati (an entrepreneur), we came up with the idea of developing an app for all the athletes, which would have all the info for things to flow smoothly.”

Ecstatic with the athletes’ response, he says, “InRio is an app designed with two purposes. The first is to bring all Indian paralympic athletes together so they know each other’s discipline and strengths, and bond with each other. The second level of the app is to connect all of them with other participants, fans and the Indian diaspora in Rio.”

All para-athletes inspire me. I came up with the idea of an app for them, which would have all the information they need while they are in Rio

Arhan Bagati, student-app developer

PHOTO: SANJEEV VERMA/HT