21-year-old Neelakanta Bhanu Prakash from Hyderabad wins ‘World’s Fastest Human Calculator’ title

Neelakanta Bhanu Prakash, a 21-year-old Hyderabad boy, has become the world’s fastest human calculator after winning the first gold for India in the Mental Calculation World Championship at Mind Sports Olympiad (MSO) in London. According to a report by Times Now, the championship was held on 15 August. He also holds world records and 50 Limca records for being the fastest human calculator in the world.   As per a report by Bangalore Mirror, Neelakanta won the event that was held virtually with 30 participants in the age group of 13 and 50 years. Participants from 13 countries including UK, Germany, UAE, France, Greece and Lebanon took part in the contest. Neelakanta was miles ahead of the Lebanese contender, who came second with a massive 65 points difference. The third place was secured by a contestant from UAE. A graduate in Mathematics from St. Stephen’s College, Neelakanta had enrolled himself for the SIP Abacus program when he was just 5 years old and completed nine levels of Abacus. He has even won the International Abacus Champion ‘13 and National Abacus Champion ‘11 and ‘12. Speaking to news agency ANI, Neelakanta said his brain calculates quicker than the speed of a calculator. “Breaking records, once held by Math maestros like Scott Flansburg and Shakuntala Devi, is a matter of national pride. I have done my bit to place India on the global level of mathematics,” the math prodigy said. He said that judges were spellbound by the speed at which he was solving the number problems and they asked him to perform more calculations to confirm his accuracy. Neelakanta said that he wishes to create “VISION Math” labs and reach out to children to make them start loving maths.