Soha Ali Khan announces Rishi Anand Nambair as India’s national spelling champ of
Classmate Spell Bee Season 11
by Suman Gupta
Mumbai, 1st April 2019: The Classmate Spell Bee Season 11, India’s largest spelling competition, an initiative of Radio Mirchi, culminated today at a thrilling finale where the winners were announced and feted by none other than Bollywood star, Soha Ali Khan! Rishi Anand Nambair of GEAR Innovative International School, Bengaluru was declared the National Champion while Harshvardhan Ray of Delhi Public School, Bengaluru was the first runner up. The theme for the competition this year was ‘Be Better than Yourself’ which is in line with Classmate’s philosophy of encouraging children to excel in the field of their choice by striving to continuously improve by competing with themselves and not with others and to be better than themselves.
This year, the competition engaged with more than 6 lac students across 1,000 schools in 30 cities. The competition is conducted in various phases comprising on-ground, online and a final televised phase. The top 15 spellers from each school compete for a place in the city finals and then further onto the national finals. Only the top 16 students from across India battle it out in the televised National Finals, which will be simulcast this year on The Discovery Channel, Discovery Kids and Discovery Tamil starting 4th May, 2019. The National Champion of Classmate Spell Bee Season 11 won a grand prize of Rs. 2,00,000/- apart from an all-expenses paid trip to witness the prestigious Scripps National Spelling Bee 2019 with a parent in Washington D.C., U.S.A. The 4 semifinalists won a cash prize of Rs. 50,000 each.
Mr. Yatish Mehrishi, COO, Radio Mirchi said, “With each passing year, Spell Bee is connecting more integrally with students, parents and teachers. Having started off as a spelling competition, it is today a landmark event that propagates the learning of the English language at the highest levels. With this property, we aim to bring together some of the brightest children from across the country on one of the most credible edutainment-based platforms. What makes this competition truly special is the pride that participants take in being a part of this and making it what it has become today.”
Mr. R Ravinarayanan, Head of Sales & Marketing, Education & Stationery Products Business (ESPB), ITC Ltd. said, “Classmate has always endeavored to recognize, nurture & celebrate the uniqueness of every child. Classmate Spell Bee Season 11 takes Classmate’s brand thought of celebrating uniqueness further as it gives students yet another opportunity to identify and showcase their distinctive talents and skills on a nationwide platform. Classmate Spell Bee season 11 builds on the scale we achieved last year with the aim of reaching out to an even larger number students across schools and cities in India, through a school contact program coupled with a novel mobile app and a dedicated website to engage students. The brand promises to support a child’s dreams with an equally unique & world class set of stationery products like notebooks, writing, drawing, art and math instruments.”
Season 11 saw Classmate Spell Bee actively engaged with the students through a dedicated website with a comprehensive set of learning modules, tests, interactive blogs and contests to help the students prepare for the event.The grand prize for the winner of Classmate Spell Bee and those for the semi-finalists have been specifically designed and sponsored by Classmate to help encourage and enable students to follow their hearts true calling.The competition this year is powered by The Times of India, Times NIE is the education partner, Discovery Kids is the television partner and Victor Tango is the event partner for the property.
About Radio Mirchi:Entertainment Network India Limited (ENIL), popularly known as Radio Mirchi in India, owns 73 frequencies and is advertising partner for another 3, across 63 cities in India, making it India’s largest private FM radio broadcaster. Launched in 2001, Mirchi now operates across the country with 4 distinct brands – Mirchi, Mirchi Love, Kool & Ishq (for which it is the advertising partner of TV today network). With the highest radio listenership across the country (approximately 29 million people) and a track record of developing innovative content, Mirchi has been expanding and retaining its audiences and advertisers through the years.Mirchi has consistently delighted listeners and the industry with exciting properties such as Mirchi Music Awards (in 8 languages) & Mirchi Top 20. Mirchi is also the biggest concert player in India and organises more than 100 concerts every year. In 2018 itself, Mirchi organised a five-city tour of legendary rockstar, Bryan Adams, and a two-city tour of the reigning world’s No. 1 DJ, Martin Garrix. Mirchi’s foray into the digital space has helped it gain a strong position with 21 online radio stations, the biggest radio website & biggest on Facebook, Twitter & YouTube. Mirchi also leverages in-house talent to produce shows which are put on its YouTube channels and various OTT platforms. Radio Mirchi reaches approximately 50 million people through its online content every month. Mirchi was also the first Indian radio brand to go international with the launch of the brand in the UAE. Mirchi also launched in Bahrain in March, 2018. On 26th January, 2019, Mirchi also launched in the US. The first brand to start ‘airport radio’ operations, Mirchi can also be heard at T3 international airport, New Delhi and Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, Hyderabad. With such a wide presence, on-air, on-ground & on digital, Mirchi is truly everywhere!
About Classmate, Education & Stationery Products Business, ITC Limited: ITC made its entry to the education and stationery business with its Paperkraft brand in the office stationery segment in 2002; and later expanded into the popular student notebook segment with its Classmate brand in 2003. By 2007, Classmate became the largest Student Notebook brand in the country. Together, Classmate and Paperkraft offer a range of products in the Education & Stationery space to the quality seeking discerning consumer, providing unrivalled value in terms of product construction & price.Classmate and Paperkraft have become a natural extension of consumers. Meticulous understanding of consumer needs helped create a relevant and comprehensive portfolio of stationery products created to the highest exacting standards of performance and safety satisfying the needs of different consumer sets.Classmate’s portfolio today comprises of offerings spanning across notebooks, writing instruments including pens and pencils, scholastic products such as geometry boxes, scales, erasers and sharpeners, as well as Art Stationery such as Wax Crayons, Plastic Crayons, Sketch pens and Oil Pastels.ITC is the manufacturer of India’s first Ozone treated environment friendly Elemental Chlorine Free (ECF) pulp, paper and paperboard. It blends its knowledge of image processing, printing and conversion garnered from Packaging & Printing Business with its brand building and trade marketing & distribution strengths resident in its FMCG business to offer superior value products to consumers.
