Navneet Master Stroke: Scouting for young artists

Navneet Stationery's competition provides an opportunity for nursery to class 10 students to showcase their creativity on a national level.

Navneet Master Stroke is a merit-driven drawing competition, organised by the stationery division of Navneet Education, which claims to be India's biggest BTL marketing event for school children. In its 14th edition, the event has received over 31 lakh online registrations from 11,032 schools across India, with Maharashtra leading the online registration with over 17,17,000 students from 5885 schools. The competition provides an opportunity for nursery to class 10 students to showcase their creativity on a national level.

The competition is divided into three groups - A (up to class 3), B (class 4 to 6) and C (class 7 to 10) - with three drawing options for each group. At the school level, teachers will judge the entries and forward the best entries for consideration at the local, inter-school level. The competition will be held in Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chandigarh, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal and West Bengal.

The state-level competition will be conducted in schools. Schools will courier those drawings to the company's Ahmedabad office. A panel of judges will decide the state winners who will qualify for the mega finale - a live drawing competition between state winners from across the country. Navneet will provide the facility of transportation, lodging and meals to students and their guardians. Judging will be done on the spot by the panel of judges. Navneet will award all winners and state winners with trophies, certificates and prizes.

The local winners are chosen by a panel of judges and the winners get an opportunity to submit entries for the district level, from which state finalists are selected. The state finalists then compete among themselves leading to the selection of national finalists.The total prize money across school, local, district, state and national levels for this edition is estimated at Rs. 75 lakh. The national winners will walk away with prizes such as LCD TVs, iPads and iPad Minis. Three mega prizes and six runner-up prizes will be given away at the national finals.

The national final will be a live event with all shortlisted finalists, sponsored by Navneet Education, travelling to Mumbai in December 2015. Here, they will be given a theme on the spot by an eminent jury who will judge the entries right there and winners will be handed over their prizes at a glittering awards function held in the evening. The finals will be judged by Viru Hiremath, art director, Trikaya Grey, Mumbai, and Maruti Patil, ex-principal, D Y Patil College of Applied Art and Craft, Pune. Professor G Waghmare, director and dean, J J School of Applied Art, is the chairman of the jury.

Shailendra Gala, director, stationery division, Navneet Education, says, "Drawing is just a metaphor for a larger, deeper objective we have been investing in, for close to 15 years, to grow Navneet Master Stroke to where it is today. We believe, children have abundant creativity and there needs to be a national level, merit-driven, competitive platform across areas for it to find a channel to be expressed and discovered. We are happy that, year after year, this competition has only grown from strength to strength. The growth in interest and entries can be attributed to the decision to allow online registration facility this year. The increased mobile penetration and online access through mobile and other devices means by allowing online registration, we also made the competition accessible to more areas, particularly from the hinterland.''

Navneet Stationery division is the mainstay of Navneet Education (formerly known as Navneet Publications India). Founded by the Gala family, it is a leading publisher of educational, general and children's books, scholastic paper and a wide range of non-paper stationery products.