Meet Ningombam Prem: India’s very own ‘Iron Man’, backed by industrialist Anand Mahindra

Hailing from a small town called Heirok, 33 kilometres away from state capital Imphal, Ningombam Prem Angom was born to parents who ran a roadside foot stall selling puris and samosas to make ends meet. But the lack of resources couldn’t deter his love for robotics, which he had picked up watching Hollywood movies. Prem turned to scrap metal and cardboard to put his engineering talented to work and started creating robots from the age of 10.

Prem was inspired to make robots after watching the science-fiction movie ‘Robots’ back in 2005. Slowly it became a hobby. However, it wasn’t easy as Prem helped his parents with their roadside food stall and could only pursue his passion for a couple of hours every day. Due to the dearth of materials, he would dismantle earlier robots to create new ones. Prem has now lost count of how many robots he has made. Among his creations are a replica robot inspired by the movie ‘Real Steel’, a robotic mini can refrigerator and several versions of the Iron Man helmet.

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Ningombam Prem Angom (@ningombam_prem_angom)

Prem started putting his work on social media also publicly sharing his detailed plans for different types of robots. His love for Hollywood actor Robert Downey Jr. who played the superhero character ‘Iron Man’ in multiple films led him to set about on his most complicated robotics project till date.

Prem’s creation of Iron Man went viral on social media and soon captured the attention of prominent industrialist Anand Mahindra, Chairman of Mahindra Group. A well-known patron of talent, Mahindra was more than impressed by Prem’s obvious talent. He reached out to the poor family and decided to give Prem a platform to chase his dreams.

Remember Prem, our young Indian Ironman from Imphal? We promised to help him get the engineering education he wanted and I’m delighted to share that he has arrived at @MahindraUni in Hyderabad. Thank you Indigo for taking such good care of him.. https://t.co/7Z6yBi39yi pic.twitter.com/Hw7f0c5lGW

— anand mahindra (@anandmahindra) November 16, 2021

Prem recently revealed his aspirations to a news outlet, “I want to be like Iron Man; I want to create robots that make life easy for people who are suffering.”

The young engineering talent recently joined the Mahindra University in Hyderabad, backed by Anand Mahindra who has decided to fund Prem and his siblings’ education. The news was recently shared on social media by the industrialist himself. Mahindra wrote, "Remember Prem, our young Indian Ironman from Imphal? We promised to help him get the engineering education he wanted and I'm delighted to share that he has arrived at @MahindraUni in Hyderabad."