Vadodara boy wins Kerala Tourism’s painting competition

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A 12-year-old boy from Vadodara in Gujarat, Parth Joshi, won the first prize in the ‘International Children’s Online Painting Competition’ organized by the state tourism department in memory of child artist Edmund Clint.
Joshi, along with four other top winners from India, became eligible for a Kerala trip accompanied by two family members.
The list of awardees included 110 winners of whom 15 are eligible for attractive tour packages with family.Ten of the 15 are from foreign countries. The jury had gone through close to 39,000 works it received from those in the age group of 4-16 from as many as 96 countries.
Fourteen-year-old Nafisa Tabassum Authay of Bangladesh won the second prize. She, along with nine other children from abroad who won the top prizes, will be eligible for a Kerala tour along with two family members. Aaradhya P G, a six-year-old Malayali girl, fetched the third prize. She figures among 40 prize winners from the host state, who will receive a cash award of Rs 10,000 each.
The first three prize-winners will get a certificate and a memento. Twenty other winners, too, will receive mementoes. “The 2018 edition of the competition received widespread response compared to the first edition. The number of entries this time was 38,995, against 5,000 in the debut edition. This edition of the competition stands out as it was conducted on a global scale,” said tourism minister Kadakampally Surendran.
The event was globally publicised by carrying out a campaign in 23 languages, tourism secretary Rani George pointed out. “We estimate that information about the competition have reached 50 lakh people,” she added. tnn