Thursday, April 17, 2008

Governor gives away RANK and BOLT awards for 2007-08


Governor gives away RANK and BOLT awards for 2007-08
Girls make a clean sweep of Sikkim RANK awards

Sikkim Express
GANGTOK, April 15: Meena Pradhan, a student of Mangan Senior Secondary School and Praveen Puri, Lecturer at the Centre for Computers and Communication Technology (CCCT) Chisopani received the State RANK (Race for Awareness and Knowledge) and BOLT (Broad Outlook Learner Teacher) Awards for 2007-08 respectively here yesterday. Both had emerged winners after competing at the State level last year.
The Governor Sudarshan Agarwal gave away the awards during the AIR INDIA and SIKKIM EXPRESS State RANK and BOLT awards ceremony held at the Janata Bhawan here.
Conceptualized by Air India, the annual RANK and BOLT Awards are designed to recognize excellence outside the field of academics among students and teachers across the country. The Award winners fly to Singapore as guests of Air India on an ambassadorial visit.
The Vice Chancellor of Sikkim University, Dr Mahindra P Lama was the guest of honour.
Governor Agarwal also gave away the awards for the State runners up RANK award to Monica Pandey of Holy Cross School and State runners up BOLT award to Manju Subba of Pelling Senior Secondary School.
Likewise, the guest of honour handed over the awards for the District winners. The Publisher of SIKKIM EXPRESS, Mala Rana Patro handed the awards to the District runner up winners. Similarly, Vinod Suri of Air India gave away the award to the district winners.
In his address, the Governor appreciated the RANK and BOLT initiative of Air India towards enthusing both the students and teachers to imbibe values of compassion, spirit of enquiry, a commitment towards the society and sensitivity towards the fragile and crumbling environment.
He also exhorted corporate houses to invest more in similar initiatives in improving the quality of life of the people.
Dr. Lama said that Air India initiative was a perfect example of corporate social responsibility towards bringing students and teachers from across the world together and in creating awareness amongst them to contribute something to the world.
Citing examples of Singapore and Japan, Dr. Lama said using soft powers especially through knowledge and education can help build a nation.
The RANK award winner Meena Pradhan, while sharing her Singapore experience, said that the clean environment and high literacy rate inspired her.
Likewise, the State BOLT award winner, Praveen Puri said that the trip to Singapore was “a treasure chest of knowledge” that he could bring back home. “I found out that for a country to emerge from a non-entity to one of the most advanced requires discipline from its countrymen. Discipline to follow the traffic rules, discipline to lead an environment friendly lifestyle and discipline to love the motherland,” he said.
While placing his views on the press and the media, Amit Patro, Editor, SIKKIM EXPRESS, said no one could deny the fact as how important the role of the media has been in this era of information, education and communication. He further added that media plays a crucial role in educating the people and to provide them clear picture of what is going on in the world. “Factual reporting is the essence of Journalism,” he added.
The District winners (RANK) are Meena Pradhan (Mangan Senior Secondary School), Monica Pandey (Holy Cross School), Sonam Choden Bhutia (Pelling Government Senior Secondary School) and Reema Pradhan (Government Girls Senior Secondary School, Namchi).
The District runners up (RANK) are Pem Chukey Bhutia (PNGSSS), Sedenla Bhutia (Pelling Senior Secondary School) and Sonamit Lepcha (Government Girls Senior Secondary School, Namchi).
The District winners (BOLT) are Shanti Ram Adhikari (SIE, Gangtok), Manju Subba (Pelling Senior Secondary School), Praveen Puri (CCCT) and Ganesh Kumar Nepal (Mangan Senior Secondary School).
The District runners up (BOLT) are Subbiah (Central Pendam Senior Secondary School), Sushma Pradhan (Birdang Primary School), and Karan Kumar Chettri (Temi Senior Secondary School).
Interestingly, all the winners for the RANK awards for 2007-08 were girls.
The RANK & BOLT Awards is a part of Air India’s pan India corporate social responsibility initiative. Launched in 2002-2003, this project was started to promote the twin concepts of "Towards Responsible & Active Citizenship" & "Preserving a Crumbling Environment" in seven states. The acceptability and synergy that was generated by this programme encouraged AI to expand it in the entire country. For Sikkim, SIKKIM EXPRESS is the media partner.