Wipro Earthian Awards celebrate excellence in sustainability education

Bangalore, India – February 8, 2020: Wipro Limited (NYSE: WIT, BSE: 507685, NSE: WIPRO), a leading global information technology, consulting and business process services company, today organized the 9^th edition of the Wipro Earthian awards for 2019. The annual awards recognize excellence in sustainability within the education process in schools and colleges in India.

Wipro Earthian is one of India’s largest sustainability education programs for schools and colleges. The 2019 edition of the program received over 1300 project entries, out of which winning entries from 10 schools and 8 colleges were selected by an independent jury.

The teams from schools demonstrated their understanding of biodiversity, waste, and water through a combination of activity-based learning programs and written essays. The teams from colleges submitted journalistic entries on the themes of water, waste, and agriculture in the urban sustainability context. They were felicitated by Rishad Premji, Chairman, Wipro Limited as part of a day-long event at Wipro’s campus in Sarjapur in Bangalore.

The winning institutes were awarded a certificate and cash prize. They will also get an opportunity to engage with Wipro and its expert sustainability partners through continuous collaborative programs that will enable a deeper understanding of issues critical to sustainability.

The Wipro Earthian awards have seen a threefold increase in the number of participants since inception in 2011. The program has engaged on a cumulative basis with over 55,000 schools and colleges, 130,000 students and 13,000 teachers from across India.

The expanded reach of the program has been catalyzed by support from Wipro’s education partners such as Centre for Environment Education (CEE), C.P.R Environmental Education Centre (CPREEC), Wild Ecologues and state governments, who provide on-ground support to Wipro Earthian during the participation cycle of the program.

This year’s key speaker was Sonam Wangchuk, an Indian engineer, sustainability innovator, and education reformist. A founding-director of the Students’ Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh (SECMOL), he was instrumental in launching Operation New Hope in 1994, in an area that is vulnerable to climate change and is water-stressed. This project is significant as it is a collaboration among government, village communities and civil society to bring reforms in the government school system. Another highlight of the program was the 2019 national finals of the Wipro Earthian Sustainability Quiz, hosted by noted quizmaster, Lloyd Saldana from Greycaps India. The day concluded with a musical performance by Swarathma, a Bangalore- based Indian folk/fusion band that draws its sound from Indian folk and classical music, blending it with Western sounds like Blues, Rock and Reggae.

Anurag Behar, Chief Sustainability Officer, Wipro Limited said, “Wipro Earthian is our flagship program that tries to bring together the themes of sustainability and education in meaningful ways. The program helps stimulate curiosity and interest in young minds in critical areas of sustainability. The ninth edition of Wipro Earthian involved outreach to schools and colleges across 29 states and 3 Union Territories, including remote locations such as Ladakh, Sunderbans, Majuli island, Little Rann of Kutch and the Nicobar Islands. As Wipro-Earthian enters its 10^th year, we hope to see it continue to evolve in its scope and scale and play a catalytic role in helping the young citizens of today to become responsible leaders of tomorrow.”

The list of winning schools at Wipro Earthian awards 2019 included the following:

Winners 

On the theme of ‘Waste’

 Govt Senior Sec School Bojoghari, East Sikkim (English)

• Kautilya Vidyalaya, Mysore, Karnataka (English)
• Joseph’s Educational Institute, Chandor, Goa (English)
• Prathmik Vidyalay Nahili Pratham Gheror, Mainpuri Uttar Pradesh (Hindi)
• Anand Niketan, Nashik, Maharashtra (Marathi)

On the theme of ‘Biodiversity’:

• Mawphlang Sec School, Meghalaya (English)
• Rajkiya Uccha Madhyamik Vidyalay, Sirohi, Rajasthan (Hindi)
• Shri Guru Nanak Rikhi Singh Girls Inter College, Uttar Pradesh (Hindi)

On the theme of ‘Water’:

• Ananda Ashram Balika Vidyapeeth, Kolkata, West Bengal (English)
• Garden Reach Nut Behari Das Girls High School, Kolkata, West Bengal (English) 

The list of winning colleges at Wipro Earthian awards 2019 included the following: 

Winners  

On the theme of Food:

• School of Planning and Architecture, Vijayawada- Governing systems in terms of food production in Punjab
• College of Engineering, Pune- Daily Bread- Winter Survival guide
• College of Engineering, Pune – Food Times  

On the theme of Water:

• Amity University, Gwalior – The Sorrows of Swarnrekha
• College of Engineering, Pune – Flood Mirror
• College of Engineering, Pune – Could A Forgotten Canal Be A Hope For Chennai’s Flooding Crisis?
• BMS College of Engineering, Bangalore- When Crisis Sparks Community