66 winners from the ninth edition (2014-15) announced, India’s largest school essay competition attracts 3 million students annually covering over 7000 schools across nearly 200 city level competitions
India CSR Network
NEW DELHI: The national winners of the ninth edition of Tata Building India School Essay Competition 2014–15 got an opportunity to meet the Honorable President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee, today at Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi as part of their felicitation.
Launched in 2006, the Tata Building India School Essay Competition is India’s largest national school essay competition that has provided a platform for students from class 6 to12 to express their views and ideas on nation building and pertinent issues. The 2014-15 edition was held in 11 different languages – English, Hindi, Gujarati, Tamil, Marathi, Kannada, Oriya, Telugu, Punjabi, Assamese and Malayalam across 7000+ schools in over 200+ cities. In this edition 3 million students penned their thoughts on the theme of “Clean India” with the topic being “Describe your views on how cleanliness impacts national development and health and how you can encourage your locality and city to adopt cleanliness and promote healthy living”
Some of the thoughts expressed in the winning essays were:
Everyone must be his own scavenger.
Cleanliness of body, surrounding areas and environment is very necessary for our physical, mental, social and intellectual health.
…Dirt is the mother which gives birth to various diseases.
Spread Gandhiji’s message – “I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet.”
Cleanliness is next to Godliness. It sure is a sign of civilization.
The national winners of year 2014-15 edition were also felicitated by the Tata group at a function held on the same day at the Ghalib Auditorium in New Delhi.
Ranjeet Goswami, Country Manager, Corporate Affairs, Tata Consultancy Services who was the chief guest at the event, gave away the prizes to the young achievers which included the Tata Building India trophy and a laptop.
Speaking at the occasion, the chief guest, Goswami said, “I would like to congratulate the winners and all the participants of the Tata Building India School Essay Competition. The entries submitted by the students are a clear indication of their thoughts and excellent ideas and it showcases the talent of these young minds. In today’s day and time, Clean India as a subject has received national attention from the Prime Minister himself and the topic for the competition is commendable to create awareness among the youngsters, as they play an active role in bringing social and national change.”
Expressing her happiness on being one of the winners, Mitali Agarwal from Bharatpur (senior category winner for the English language TBI essay competition from the 2014-15 edition), said “I feel extremely proud to be a part of this remarkable journey. This has instilled in me greater confidence to come up with solutions for the betterment of our society and country at large, and has inspired me to be a responsible citizen. I would urge the people of India to take a step forward towards making our country clean”.
Expressing her happiness on being one of the winners, Kritika Abhyankar from Ratnagiri (junior category runner-up for the Marathi language TBI essay competition from the 2014-15 edition), said “I am grateful to Tatas for giving me such a great opportunity. Tata Building India has motivated youngsters like us to express our views on the subject of national importance and has inculcated in us a sense of nation building.”
Expressing her happiness on being one of the winners, Saumya Shukla from Kanpur (senior category winner for the Hindi language TBI essay competition from the 2014-15 edition), said” I am really excited to meet the President of India and visit the Rashtrapati Bhavan. It has been a great journey and experience and I would like to express my gratitude towards my parents and school for encouraging and supporting me to be a part of this prestigious initiative of the Tatas.”
Started in 2006 as an English-language essay contest, the Tata Building India School Essay Competition is a unique initiative undertaken by the Tata group of companies to motivate the youth of India towards thinking about nation building. The essay competition provides a unique platform to encourage young leaders of tomorrow to showcase their expressions in writing on a host of subjects related to nation building.
The competition is a two-phase activity in participating schools. The first phase consists of screening inspirational Tata-linked films which stimulate the students to think about the nation. The audio visual for the year 2014-15 was ‘Keepers of the Flame, along with an audio visual on Tata Building India.
Followed by this, the topic of the essay is shared with the students and they are required to write an essay on the given topic, based on a theme announced earlier. The ninth edition (2014-15) encouraged young minds to express their thoughts on the theme of ‘Clean India’.
