Eight progress to zonal round of Speak for India’s Maha edition

Pune: Eight voices rang with the most conviction at the Pune leg of ‘Speak for India’ (Maharashtra edition), held on Monday at the Neville Wadia Institute of Management Studies and Research.

These eight, from a field of 114 participants from Pune, have progressed to the zonal round of the intercollegiate debate competition, organized by Federal Bank in association with The Times of India and Maharashtra Times.

About 114 participants from different colleges of the district engaged each other over two rounds of lively speeches and debates. Once registrations wrapped up in the morning, participants drew their topics through lots. Each participant was given five minutes to prepare to speak extempore on his/her topic for a minute.

The extempore round threw up 20 performers, who then proceeded to the debate round. They were split into groups of four.

The judges picked eight winners for the zonal round — Nikita Patil (Savitribai Phule Pune University), Praveen Shinde (Tilak Maharashtra Vidyapeeth), Rajas Kolhatkar (Symbiosis School of Economics), Riddhima Vidaya (The Brihan Maharashtra College of Commerce), Tanisha Kale (Nowrosjee Wadia College), Mihir Nevpurkar (PES Modern College of Engineering), Sheetal Potale (PES Modern College) and Apoorva Maheshwari (Pune Institute of Computer Technology)

The aim of this initiative is to give students an opportunity to expand awareness and express their perspective on contemporary issues.

The eight best debaters will compete in the state-level final in Mumbai. The winner will get Rs1.5 lakh and Rs50,000 as scholarship for higher studies and the college represented will win Rs25,000. The runner-up will win Rs1 lakh and the college represented will get Rs25,000. Each finalist stands to win Rs25,000.

Considering the overwhelming response from Pune district, one more round of competition is planned. Interested students can register at www.speakforindia.com.