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NEW
DELHI: Indian Habitat Centre, in association with the National
Geographic, conducted the finals of the Habitat Young Visionary
Award 2008 here on January 30, with Stephenian .Vishesh Kothari
winning a tough round of presentations by five contestants.
Kothari
spoke on education reforms and said that the education system
in India was not dynamic enough and that students were tested
primarily on diligence and not intelligence, and the prize
entitles him to a study tour in Cambridge University in the
United Kingdom.
Among
his solutions was that tests should carry an unpredictable
format which would allow students to think on their feet.
Sayan
Ganguly bagged the second prize and he, too, spoke on education.
According to him we are being educated to not be creative.
Since degrees have now become of less importance due to academic
inflation, redefining intelligence is important.
Ganguly,
a student or metallurgy in IIT Madras, has won a study tour
to the National Geographic Channel headquarters in Hong Kong.
Rahul
Saikia, a geography student from Shillong, who came in third,
thought that youth could learn more if the boundaries of the
classrooms were extended.
He
cited the example of a college where students of all departments
conducted a non-academic thesis for two days every week.
Saikia
said they partnered with farmers and NGOs to grow and market
strawberries bringing about not only an income but also a
learning experience in a real-life scenario.
Saikia
won an internship with National Geographic in India.
"The
event has been conceived four years ago, with the intent of
bringing about "the thoughts and thought processes of
the younger generation into the public domain," said
Raj Liberhan, Director of Indian Habitat Centre.
National
Geographic has partnered the event on its previous two editions.
With
a chance of landing a summer fellowship at Cambridge University,
UK and lucrative internships with Cambridge, Hong Kong and
India, the contestants had their work cut out.
They
were required to present their views on the sectors of society
where they thought changes were necessary and offer a solution
model to foster the change. Education was the sector where
most candidates thought a change was necessary.
The judges at the occasion were luminaries in the fields of
education, journalism and civil service and included the likes
of Lakhan Malhotra (former Indian Ambassador to China), Renuka
Narayanan (one of the Editors of Hindustan Times), Nikhil
Mirchandani (Managing Editor National Geographic South-Asia),
Pankaj Pachauri(Editor, NDTV) and Dr. Dilip Simeon (Senior
Fellow, Teen Murti Research Centre), among others.
Lakhan
Malhotra said in the vote of thanks that Habitat and National
Geographic need to be thanked heartily for the transparent
manner in which they have brought out the stars among the
youth and stressed that the latter must become the stars of
India in days to come.
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