At the Awards Evening of the Mera India Bridge the Gap Contest

The Awards Presentation ceremony of the Mera India Bridge the Gap Contest was held on November 10,2009 at India Habitat Centre, Delhi. For us at Mera India it was wonderful to meet the award winners in person. Our jury members also got an opportunity to see the faces behind the entries they had selected. We present some photos from a truly memorable event.


Guests of Honour, Parliamentarian Sandeep Dikshit and noted journalist and documentary film maker Nupur Basu, being felicitated.



The First Prize Winner, Katuri Kodanda Pani, receives the award from Guest of Honour Nupur Basu. Kodanda Pani had submitted an essay for the Mera India, Bridge the Gap contest which called upon young Indians to give ideas on how India could meet its commitment on the Millennium Development Goals.

Katuri comes from the village of Ipurupalem in Andhra Pradesh. He is currently preparing for the civil services exam and hopes to become an administrator. He says he participated in the Mera India Bridge the Gap contest to share his thoughts with others. He wants the focus to be on rural India and is presently involved in making the poor in his village more aware of government schemes.


The Second Prize winner, Nupur Tiwari is pursuing B Tech from the College of Technology, G B Pant University. She wishes to pursue post graduation in Rural Management. She believes the time has come to stop blaming the government for failures and involve civil society to transform the country. She too had submitted an essay.

The Third Prize winner, Bharat Bhatti from St Stephen's College, receives the award from Nupur Basu for his essay.

Nupur Basu and Sandeep Dikshit along with B Muralidharan United Nations Coordination Advisor.


The team from Sophia College, Ajmer bagged the Certificate of Appreciation for their film. The girls - Avni Manglik, Monica Dhariwal and Reenu Ranawat are presented the award by Guest of Honour and Member of Parliament Sandeep Diskhit.

Neeraj Kumar Singh from the Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai receives the Certificate of Appreciation for his essay.

Nooreen Fatima from Lucknow receives the Certificate of Recognition for her picture strip.

UN Coordination Advisor, B Muralidharan addresses the gathering.

All the award winners presented their ideas. Anjana Agarwal from the National Law School of India, Bangalore shares her ideas with the gathering.

The audience listens to jury member, noted journalist Paronjoy Guha Thakurta

Parmeet Singh Chipra and Bharat Panth of Kirori Mal College set the tempo for the evening, while Tarun Devrani (below) also from Kirori Mal had the audience spell bound with a truly energetic dance celebrating the spirit of youth.

Ideas from the award winning entries on how India could meet its MDG promises were displayed on November 9 and 10 at the India Habitat Centre. The exhibition attracted many visitors.