Students of the Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Hyderabad along with the National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata have won the ‘GREAT Debate’ competition organised by the British High Commission in association with Virgin Atlantic.
Reeti Sarkar and Sateja Paradkar from BITS-Pilani, Hyderabad and Arindrajit Basu and Pratik Ranjan Das from National University of Juridical Sciences will fly Virgin Atlantic to the United Kingdom on a week-long study tour.
They debated on several issues surrounding universal health and education, India’s demographic strength, big business and Corporate Social Responsibility, women’s rights, social media and privacy. The competition was organised across the cities of Delhi, Chandigarh, Kolkata, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram and Jaipur. The winning team from each city battled it out at the grand finale.
The finalists met and interacted with the Duke of York and Union Minister for Human Resource Development Smriti Irani. British High Commissioner to India James Bevan said the debate was a wonderful opportunity to celebrate “the UK and India’s shared tradition of lively, reasoned debate and our close educational ties”, a press release said.