At 18, he built a bionic hand for his childhood friend.

Ansh Mishra grew up watching his friend and neighbour Shaheen live without a functional hand. She had lost her hand in an accident when she was six. A cosmetic prosthetic gave her the appearance of a hand, but not the movement needed for everyday tasks.

That stayed with Ansh. The Prayagraj-based engineering student had been building machines since childhood, often spending gift money on components. Eventually, he turned those years of experimentation toward something personal.

Ansh developed a robotic prosthetic hand that reads electrical signals from the user's residual limb and translates them into movements such as opening, closing and gripping. His prototype also includes basic touch feedback to help the wearer judge interaction with objects.

He built and refined the system through repeated prototyping, using locally sourced steel, in-house 3D-printed parts and domestically produced electronics where possible. The hand is called Divine Organ, and the venture behind it is BRHM.

Advanced robotic prosthetics can be financially out of reach for many families. Ansh has said his prototype costs about ₹40,000 to build and that he is working toward a substantially more accessible final product.

This is what makes the story bigger than a machine. At 18, he did not begin with a market category. He began with a person he knew, a limitation he had seen for years and a belief that engineering should restore real capability.