Defence Minister Rajnath Singh felicitated the ‘Super-100’ who won in the Project Veer Gatha 3.0 competition on January 25. Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan was present at the function. A cash prize of ₹10,000, a medal and a certificate were given to each of the 100 winners.
In a break from tradition, Mr. Singh handed over the podium to one of the winners Sushri Barnali Sahu, a student of Class 11, DAV Public School, Cuttack, Odisha to address the gathering on his behalf, a gesture that struck a chord with the students assembled for the event. “Even though Ms. Barnali hails from a non-Hindi state, she read out the speech fluently. Her exceptional effort was appreciated by the Raksha Mantri and other dignitaries present at the event,” the Defence Ministry said in a statement.
Project Veer Gatha, a joint endeavour of the Defence and Education Ministries, introduces the bravehearts of the nation to the youth, Mr. Singh said.
Contest expanded
On the recommendation of the Defence Minister, Veer Gatha 3.0 underwent a expansion to recognise 100 winners at National Level as against 25 winners in the first two editions, the statement said and included an enhanced feature of recognising winners at multiple levels – National, State, and District, the statement said.
The third edition was held between July 13 to September 30, 2023. A record 1.36 crore students from 2.42 lakh schools across India shared their inspirational stories in essays, poems, drawings and multimedia presentations, the Ministry said. After a series of evaluations at State and District level, nearly 3,900 entries were submitted for national level evaluation. The national level evaluation committee appointed by the Ministry of Education selected the top 100 entries. Twenty-five (25) winners from each category - Class 3rd to 5th, Class 6th to 8th, Class 9th to 10th, and Class 11th to 12th were selected.
There were 65 girls in the ‘Super-100’. Odisha led the pack with eight girl students, closely followed by Bihar with seven, while Jammu and Kashmir and Manipur had two and five girl student winners respectively, the statement added.
