Mysuru:  Maheshwari Das, a student of E&C Department, JSS Science and Technology University (SJCE) received a runner-up trophy and cash prize of Rs.1 lakh in the ‘Speak for India – Karnataka Edition’ grand finale held in Bengaluru recently.

Speak for India – Karnataka Edition is an Inter-Collegiate Debate Competition organised by Federal Bank in association with Times of India and Vijaya Karnataka. The Karnataka Edition was held in two languages — Kannada and English. The debater has to choose a language and maintain it throughout the competition.

She was selected as one among the top 26 contestants of Speak for India-2018 and was then eligible for the semi-finals. The top 26 contestants competed at the semi-finals at Chancery Pavilion, Bengaluru.

Maheshwari Das had to debate against the motion on “India’s Economy is too small to make unicorns but the number of people trying their luck is many. Is this a recipe for dot.com burst of 2000?”

She put forth her argument with examples of the Indian unicorns — Swiggy, Oyo and Zomato. Her argument focused on how the home-based food delivery idea made it the unicorn list and thus concluded by telling that this is a path with ups and downs but certainly not a downhill. She had to debate that there should be a limit in the free data packages given by the telecom companies. The panel of discussion included four students from various colleges across Karnataka.

The Grand finale was for top two speakers and two Mysuru students made it to the top — Maheshwari Das and Sudeep Kumar. The debate was on ‘Are policies like farm loan waivers and Rs.6,000 a year direct transfer to farmers a good way to help the farmers in India?’

Finalist Maheshwari Das had to speak against the topic. She debated that the Government could have given them other basic necessities such as free education for their children, seeds at a discount, etc.

Maheshwari Das received a trophy, merit certificate and  Rs. 1 lakh in cash. The College received a trophy and cash prize of Rs.20,000.