Onkar’s Space Zone

Jammu’s prodigy Onkar Singh is one the renowned names in the Indian Space System and he is the CEO of Paradox Sonic Space Research Agency. Onkar Singh, aged 16 was born in a normal middle-class family, with Punjabi Mother and Father from Jammu. He is highly known for his numerous achievements including the Bal Shakti Puruskar 2020, as honoured by Ramnath Govind and Global Child Prodigy awards at Al Jaddaf, Dubai 2022.

Moreover, Onkar gas created a name across the globe and has five world records in his favour including World’s Youngest Webmaster, World’s Youngest Theoretical Author, World’s Youngest EMF Researcher, World’s Youngest Ambassador and World’s Youngest Doctorate holder, Talking to Groundreport.in, Onkar Singh said:

“I started developing satellites at an early age and communicated with ISRO and other Government Companies after receiving Rashtriya Bal Puruskar Award. This award was the turning point of my life as I was recognized for my handwork, passion and enthusiasm to do something out of the box.”

Onkar Singh is the twelfth pass out and chases passion more than educating himself through degrees. He considers himself as an explorer and doesn’t care about the results, but only enjoys the process. His parents have been quite supportive from the beginning and for him, his dad is the backbone of his success.

“Without their support and encouragement, I’d not have been able to achieve so many titles in my life. They’ve given me the freedom to open my wings and conquer the sky of my dreams. Not only this, but my friends also stood for me, regardless of my success and failure.”

Talking of his well-established Research Agency, he brought to us, that PSSRA is the first northeast startup in India to collaborate with ISRO for free education of space and students of Jammu and Kashmir can also have the privilege of joining there.

“PSSRA in itself is all around the space market as it’s a great, growing field with lots of opportunities in present times. Having no specific eligibility criteria or qualification required, it’s an open platform for all of students across the nation. The space companies like ISRO have been of great help in helping me to achieve the targets after the government unlocked the space sector by giving everyone access to the In–Space service. Through this service, my vision got more enlightened and this furthermore helped me to sort for ways of innovating more and more.”

In order to achieve excellence, a holistic roadmap with hard work and risks is required. Onkar Singh has not only earned success but has faced failures too. His journey was inspiring, motivating and tiring as well. It was not a piece of cake for him. He has faced a lot of intricacies like the unavailability of proper resources and negligible courses offered for space research. But this could not resist or stop him from capturing all the enthralling views of his passion. Through his hard work, self-research and knowledge of technicalities, he made the impossible, possible.

“I would not deny that I am a nerd, I love to explore and learn, but I am not having a structured plan for my future. But I know that no matter whatever field I choose, I’ll definitely be a leader because I’ve accepted my imperfections as well as perfections and I know that by hard work, and support from my people, I’ll be able to achieve heights in anything”, said Onkar Singh.

“Don’t read success stories, you will only get a message. Read failure stories, you will get some ideas to get success”

Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Azad is his biggest inspiration followed by the expectations of the people around him. He had a dream to meet the then President of India but destiny didn’t favour it. He is completely moved by his accomplishments and services to the nation. Not only for the Indian space industry, but Onkar also looks at APJ Abdul Kalam for his other noble and generous deeds as well.  On mentioning his second inspiration, Onkar took it from a philosophical perspective :

“ The expectations of my family, friends, teachers, society and my nation are what keep me going on and working more and more towards development and progression. It helps me in strengthening my mind setup and investing a large part of my knowledge into practical sense.”

He agrees that the scope of the space system is null in the UT of Jammu and Kashmir and considers the lack of awareness and open choice to students as a major reason for the same.

“ People of J&K are only taught to be doctors and engineers, regardless of giving choice to opt for what they want. They’re never even recommended to join space services. The educational pressure has squeezed the dreams of thousands of students here.”

Onkar recalls how this education pressure reduced his team of 6 to 1 person only.  “I started the project of mini – a satellite with six people, out of which three had expertise in robotics. But due to the board exams, they dropped out of the team and focused more on their parent's suggestions. Since they had their own reasons and rooms for this, I consider it as a lack of knowledge for the parents in the space sector.”

“Behind every young child who believes in themselves is a parent who believed first.”

“ Onkar’s suggestion for the parents is to support their children in doing whatever they want and not impose their order to follow certain XYZ degrees. For critics, he welcomes those who prefer constructive criticism and, in his eyes, it is the source of keeping you motivated and going ahead. For students out there, he wants them to follow their passion rather than getting spoon-fed and cramming up the lectures. He suggests they put all of their blood and sweat into their passion and become unstoppable. He lays stress on being a leader in every field and excelling day by day and not concerned about success or failure.”

(Author is an engineering student and she can be reached at [email protected])