National winners of ‘Tata Building India School Essay Competition’ meet the President of India and get felicitated by the Tata group

• 60 winners from the seventh edition (2012-13) and 72 winners from the eighth season (2013-14) announced
• India’s largest school essay competition attracts over 3 million students annually covering over 7000 schools across nearly 200 city level competitions
• Of the 132 winning essays, 1 student won in the English Essay competition from Pune and 6 students won in the Marathi language category

January 13, 2016: The national winners of the seventh and eighth edition of Tata Building India School Essay Competition got a chance to meet the Honourable President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee, on December 04, 2015 at Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi. The national winners also got a once in lifetime opportunity to take a tour of the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

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^th to 12^th to express their thoughts and ideas on nation building. The 2012-13 edition was held in 10 different languages – English, Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, Tamil, Marathi, Kannada, Oriya, Telugu and Malayalam. In 2013-14, two more languages — Punjabi and Assamese — were added taking the total count to twelve languages. Each edition saw participation of nearly 3 million students across6500 to 7000 schools from over 170 cities.

The national winners across the two editions were also felicitated by the Tata Group at a function held on the same day at the FICCI auditorium in New Delhi. Mr. Ronen Sen, Director, Tata Sons Ltd who was the chief guest at the event, awarded the young achievers with the coveted Tata Building India trophy and a laptop each (please refer to the annexure for details of the winners).

Impressed by the talent and the passion of the students, Mr. Ronen Sen said “All the students who participated are winners. They make their parents, teachers, school, city and the country proud…. The Tata Building India School Essay Competition has grown and reached out to many students across the country, especially in tier 2, 3 and 4 cities besides some villages. This successful initiative is very much a part of Tata group’s DNA”.

Every year the Tata Building India School Essay Competition identifies an inspiring and challenging theme for the competition to stimulate the minds of young students. The seventh edition (2012-13) encouraged young minds to express their thoughts on the theme of ‘Science & Technology for India’. In the eighth edition (2013-14) the students were asked to pen their thoughts down on the theme of a ‘Happy and Prosperous Nation’.

The winning essays were a compilation of impactful, profound thoughts which showcased the vision of the young minds of India today.

The TBI School Essay Competition, is a two-phased activity in participating schools. In the first phase, the students are shown an audio-visual (AV) that provides a stimulus to the students to think about the country. The AV for the year 2012-13 was ‘Speak for the Earth’ and the one for 2013-14 was ‘Keepers of the Flame’, along with an AV on Tata Building India. Following the screening, students from classes 6^thto 12^th were asked to write an essay based on the theme of the year, in their respective languages.

To ensure a level playing field, the participation of the students was divided into two categories: Junior Level for classes 6^th  to 8^th  and Senior Level for classes 9 to 12. The essays were judged on parameters like ‘relevance to the topic’, ‘structure’, ‘creativity’ and ‘communication of the idea’. Once a student finishes writing an essay, it is evaluated at three levels. First, these essays are shortlisted at the School level by the teachers, and thereafter the winning essays are evaluated through a panel of independent local academia/journalists to declare City Level winners. Finally, at the National/State level (for regional languages), an eminent panel of judges assesses the essays of the city winners to determine the final national/state winners. The winners at each level were rewarded and regional functions are held to felicitate the city level winners.

Details of winners, along with their school and city name, who have won in the Marathi language category listed below:

2012-13

2013-14

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