Mumbai, February 3. More than 330 students of 30 schools across the United Arab Emirates and seven schools from India attended a two-day inaugural Diplomathon UAE 2019 conference in Dubai city on February 1-2.

“Diplomathon is a unique platform for constructive leadership and engagement of youth in real time dialogues via new technologies to become ‘world-ready’ in the new age of globalisation,” explained Niyati Khanna, co-founder and international head of the Mumbai-based Apogeeoh Education Pvt. Ltd, which organised the two-day conference for class V-XII students in the UAE and India. “Diplomathon is a student leadership conference that promotes a different approach towards learning global affairs through simulations of the United Nations and other international organisations to enable students to develop a variety of skills such as leadership, role play, sandboxing, public speaking, critical thinking, negotiation and diplomacy.”

The top six schools of Diplomathon UAE 2019 were The Winchester School, Jebel Ali, Dubai; Oxford School, Dubai; Podar International School, Khar (Mumbai); Podar International School Powai (Mumbai); Gems Modern Academy, Dubai with the Best School Delegation trophy awarded to Sri Sri Ravishankar Vidya Mandir, Borivali, Mumbai.

Honda Foundation awards 2018-19

New Delhi, February 4. Honda Cars India Ltd (HCIL) presented the 12th edition of the Young Engineer and Scientists (Y-E-S) Award for 2018-19 to 14 students of India’s Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) in New Delhi.
The Y-E-S awards were instituted in India by the Honda Foundation in 2007 and are facilitated by HCIL to nurture students who have excelled in science and technology. The awards are conferred annually upon the best IIT students after a rigorous evaluation by a panel of senior Honda executives and prominent Indian scientists.

Scholarships of US $3000 were presented to the 14 students selected from six IITs — Bombay, Madras, Kharagpur, Kanpur, Roorkee and Guwahati — on the basis of their cumulative grade point average (CGPA), essays and two rounds of personal interviews with the selection committee of senior Honda executives and Shirish Garud, director of TERI, the chief assessor of the selection committee.

“We received tremendous response and enthusiasm from students this year. Thus far, we have awarded 154 IIT students in 12 years. The Y-E-S Awards are a small contribution to encourage them to fulfill their academic dreams,” said Gaku Nakanishi, president of HCIL, speaking on the occasion.

GIIS scholarships offer

Mumbai, February 5. The Singapore-based Global Indian International School (GIIS), which has a network of 19 campuses in seven countries, announced generous scholarships of Rs.4.75 crore for students in India.

Now in its tenth year, the Global Citizen Scholarship will enable ten awardees to study for two years (2019-2021) at the GIIS Smart Campus in Punggol, Singapore. GIIS, which has established six campuses in India, has invested SGD 7.5 million (Rs.39.3 crore) in this programme and enabled 80 Indian students to enter top-ranked universities worldwide. To apply for this two-year scholarship programme, students in India can log onto www.giisscholarships.org and register before March 17.

“We have always been committed to India. Our Global Citizen Scholarship programme is designed bearing in mind that bright minds need global exposure,” said Atul Temurnikar, co-founder and executive chairman, Global Schools Foundation, addressing the media in Mumbai.

The scholarships are open to class X students to pursue higher secondary education at GIIS, Singapore which offers the CBSE class XI-XII and IB diploma curriculums. The selection process includes a written exam, followed by two rounds of interviews in major cities across India.

Save the Children-PwC conference

Bangalore, February 21. Save the Children along with PwC India Foundation organised a roundtable conference on ‘Creating Transformational Business Partnerships for Child Rights’. Heads of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives of leading electronics, IT, healthcare, manufacturing and financial companies attended the conference.

Delegates discussed top CSR trends and projections for 2019, and how media, corporates and NGOs could co-operate, leveraging their assets, connections, creativity and expertise to support children and children’s rights and also meet their CSR obligations.

Addressing the conference, Bidisha Pillai, CEO of Save the Children (India) said: “The quality of partnerships we want to contract is of great importance. We are looking for stakeholders with a shared vision who have the skills that enable us to tackle difficult problems relating to the hardest to reach children.”

The Creating Transformational Business Partnerships for Child Rights conferences are an extension of PwC’s commitment to make a difference in the child rights space, and spark a debate on how corporates can collaborate to ensure that the rights and entitlements of children are protected.

The event provided an opportunity for business leaders and other stakeholders to explore how their decisions can improve the learning outcomes and work productivity of India’s neglected human resource.