India, July 24 -- At just 17, Siddhartha Manaktala has defied expectations. Despite still being in school and lacking formal specialisation, he created an artificial intelligence (AI) app that scans photographs to assess eyesight and could help prevent blindness.

Taking his initiative forward, Manaktala, a Class XII student at Pathways World School, Aravalli, spends his weekends conducting eye screening camps in government schools, villages and factories across Haryana. He says his mission is to ensure that poverty never becomes the reason someone loses vision.

His innovation, EyeSpy, an artificial intelligence-powered smartphone platform, screens people for seven eye diseases using a photograph taken with a mobile phone.

"I didn't bui...