Mumbai: Seeking to empower over five million students from 10,000 schools across 300 plus cities, to express their ideas on nation building, the Tata group launched India’s largest essay competition, themed on Lessons for Modern India from Mahatma Gandhi. The 13th edition of Tata Building India School Essay Competition coincides with the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, and 150 glorious years of service to nation by the Tata group.
Motivating students to express their views on the topics of national importance, the competition provides a unique platform to young future leaders to unlock their imagination and showcase their writing prowess. Over the years, the themes of the competition ranged from contemporary topics like Digital Technology for a Better India, Clean India, Global Warming and Climate Change, to name a few, eliciting a great traction.
Held in 13 languages including English, Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, Tamil, Marathi, Kannada, Oriya, Telugu, Malayalam, Punjabi, Assamese, and Urdu, the exciting competition commenced from August 1, in Indore and will be rolled over in other languages in the first fortnight of August. The competition is a two-phase activity in participating schools. The first phase consists of screening inspirational films which stimulate the students to think about the nation. Followed by this, the topic of the essay is shared, and students are required to write an essay on the topic, based on the theme.
To ensure a level playing field for students, the competition is conducted across two categories – junior level for classes 6-8 and senior level for classes 9-12. The essays evaluated by school teachers at the school level, are also evaluated by an eminent jury at the city and the state/ national level on the parameters of relevance to the topic, structure, creativity and communication of the idea, and prizes are awarded for school, city, and national level winners. The national winners of this pan-India competition get once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet a national dignitary like the President of India and visit the Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi.
Started in 2006, Tata Building India has emerged as one of the key annual initiatives undertaken by the Tata group of companies to motivate and nurture young minds across India towards thinking about nation building. Tata ClassEdge, a technology-enabled holistic instructional solution, conducts the English language essay competition in its partner schools, as well.
