E-Paper
After months of verbal jostles, Speak for India enters last lap
New Delhi: Following months of intense verbal duels between college-goers from across the national Capital on contemporary topics, the grand finale of the Federal
New Delhi: Following months of intense verbal duels between college-goers from across the national Capital on contemporary topics, the grand finale of the Federal Bank Speak for India — Delhi Edition, in association with Hindustan Times and Hindustan, will be conducted on Tuesday. This is the first time the event is being organised in the National Capital Region (NCR).
The event provides a platform for the youth to debate contemporary social, political, and cultural issues and explore opposing perspectives, while preparing them to take on the role of change-makers in society.
Over 62,000 participants from across Delhi and the NCR registered online, and over 1,000 students took part in the preliminary auditions. The initial rounds, which took place in January and February, were conducted in various Delhi University (DU) colleges, including Hindu College, Kirori Mal College, Aurobindo College, and Daulat Ram College.
Though the finale was slated to be conducted in March, the event was postponed in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown imposed to curb the spread of the disease.
Finalist Priyanshi Sharma, 21, who will graduate in Economics from Daulat Ram College this year, said, “The experience has been different from DU debating circuits, because it was very well-organised and managed. Since the participants were from good debating societies, the level of competition has also been great. Debates like these give us the chance to see multiple perspectives of an issue and ponder over a stance that might be completely opposite to ours. It helps us learn how to function with logic in life.”
The initial screening was done through auditions at the sub-zonal level across more than 10 centres in Delhi-NCR, following which shortlisted candidates competed at four zonal auditions. The eight finalists who will debate on Tuesday were selected from the 36 semi-finalists and are from institutes like FORE School of Management, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), and various DU colleges.
Rajan Bhalla, chief business officer and CMO, HT Media Ltd, said “Federal Bank’s Speak for India Delhi Edition 2019 in partnership with Hindustan Times and Hindustan is truly India’s biggest debate competition for youth. The multi-state competition engendered a massive response from collegians who participated with great fervor. And, we’re all geared up for the grand finale.”
Federal Bank MD and CEO, Shyam Srinivasan said, “These are challenging times. When we set this out almost a year ago, nobody had a clue that we would be faced with such a change in events [due to the pandemic]. But we are excited to be able to do the first event in Delhi with our partner Hindustan Times.”
While former parliamentarian and national vice-president of the Bharatiya Janata Party Baijayant Jay Panda is the chief guest, renowned athlete and paralympian Deepa Malik and Aam Aadmi Party legislator and spokesperson Raghav Chadha are the guests of honour. The jury comprises senior journalist Barkha Dutt, founding member of DU’s National Democratic Teachers’ Front Inder Mohan Kapahy, and Shri Ram College of Commerce professor Abhinav Prakash Singh.
The winner will get a cash prize of ₹1.5 lakh, a scholarship of ₹50,000 and a college reward worth ₹25,000. The first runner-up will also get a cash prize of ₹1 lakh and ₹20,000 college reward. Apart from this, there is a category of popular choice award with a cash prize of ₹50,000 and consolation cash prize for five participants of ₹25,000.
