#MumbaiDebateChampionship2021 competition to be organised by #ZeeEntertainment’s #MindWars!

Conducted Between 14thNov and 18th Nov, 2021.The Winner Gets A Chance To Represent India in the #WorldSchoolDebatingChampionship.

Mumbai, November, 2021: Zee Entertainment’s Mind Wars, India’s biggest knowledge platform for school students, has organised a first of its kind debate championship for children between the age bracket of 12 and 17. It is titled the Mind Wars Mumbai Debate Championship 2021. The winner of the championship will win prizes worth more than Rs. One Lakh along with an opportunity to participate and represent India in the World School Debating Championship taking place later this year. The championship will be held across Mumbai. It is the first time a debate competition is held in the city for school students in such a grand scale.

The zonal rounds will commence from Nov 14th and the grand finale is scheduled on Nov 18th, 2021. With the competition having already received an overwhelming response from more than 150 schools across the Mumbai Metropolitan Region.

The competition is scheduled in four phases. The first two phases that comprised evaluating the written submissions by registered students and then evaluating the speech videos submitted by the students selected in the first phase are already over. Phase three, which is about to start is the Zonal Championship knockout round where the top 32 students selected from the video rounds will compete in a knockout format. There are four zones—North Mumbai, South Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, and Thane—and eight students will be selected from each of these zones. In the final phase, the top two qualifying students from each zone will move to the City Championship quarterfinals, and then the semifinals and ultimately the final battle will be held. The ultimate winner of the debate championship will get a chance to represent India at the World school debating championship.

“With cities slowly recovering from the effects of the pandemic, I am delighted that our team at Mind Wars is receiving an overwhelming response from the teachers and students community to conduct such on-ground initiatives,” said Mr. Umesh Kr Bansal, Executive Vice President, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited. “Children today are missing the extracurricular activities and group interactions that they would otherwise have under normal circumstances. Through initiatives like the debate championship we aim to empower children with knowledge-based alternatives equipping them to become street smart, which help them take on any situation in life. I look forward to seeing how opinions are shaping out amongst the school going youngsters.”

Debate topics for the championship will cover a range of current issues such as economic policy, social justice, international relations, philosophy etc. The topics will be revealed few days prior to the day of actual debate ensuring the students have ample time to prepare and work on their speech.

Mind Wars, in an attempt to enhance their critical thinking skills among students, is also looking at conducting such initiatives in other parts of the country and even hold pan-India competitions in the future.

The brainchild of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL), Mind Wars has more than 1.8 million subscribers with its reach of over 20 million students across the country making it the largest and a first-of-its-kind knowledge acceleration programme in India. This debate is an initiative by Zee Entertainment in association with Indian Schools Debating Society.