Nikhil Ranjan and Shubhra Baidya

Two Ranchi school students will compete with the best talents from across the country for Bal Shree Award 2011 at National Bal Bhawan, New Delhi between October 1-5.

The duo are 12-year-old Nikhil Ranjan, a class VII boy of St Thomas School, and 15-year-old Shubhra Baidya, a Class XI girl of Jawahar Vidya Mandir, Shayamli, both of whom qualified in the Bal Shree zonal level competition held in Patna in January.

While Nikhil will be contesting in the creative arts category, Shubhra will have to match wits with the brightest of her generation in the scientific innovations category.

Chairman of State Bal Bhawan Ganesh Reddy said state-level selections were held last year while the zonal-level competition was held in January. “Due to some reasons the competition was delayed. Hence the award is for year 2011,” he explained.

Bal Shree Award, launched in 1995 to spot talented children between 9 and 16, are conferred in four categories, namely, creative performance, creative arts, creative scientific innovation and creative writing. The awards, which are given away by the President of India, include cash prize, certificate, plaque and books.

An excited Nikhil explained his creation. “I designed a bird’s nest using paper and jute. The topic of the painting competition was ‘Save the Tiger’ and I drew the face of a tiger face and showed a rifle alongside. In collage, the topic was ‘Park’.”

Shubhra can’t wait for the national competition for which she has designed a hydropower-related project. “I was the only candidate from Jharkhand to qualify in the scientific innovation category,” said the spunky teenager who is keen on pursuing a career in medicine.

The state level competition, which was held in July last year, saw 70 children take part from across Jharkhand. This forum was meant to shortlist students for the zonal competition that was held in Patna where children from as many as 10 states took part.

Out of 70 students from Jharkhand, five qualified for the zonal competition. And finally, two of them were selected to compete nationally in October.

This is not for the first time that students from Jharkhand will vie for the coveted awards nationally. Earlier recipients of Bal Shree Samman from the state were Soumitra Thakur in 2009 and Vishwadeep Karamkar in 2010.

Reddy said he was hopeful that both Nikhil and Shubhra would bring home awards this year, too, and make Jharkhand proud. “We have the best talents with potential to compete at the national level,” said the chairman of State Bal Bhawan which was formed in 2009.