The much anticipated finale of the debate competition of the 3rd WPC Youth Forum- Energy Extempore, lived up to its reputation by show casing the very best orators making their most convincing arguments. Given the topic- “It is the responsibility of the state but not the industry to convert the present carbon economy into a clean energy economy”- the sparks flew as expected over ‘for’ and ‘against’ the statement by the top six finalists of the event: Mr.Gaurav Agarwal (ISM Dhanbad), Mr.Anith Prakash (IOCL, New Delhi), Mr.Gaurav Dixit, (ONGC Mehsana), Mr.Prashanth Kumar Mishra (Shell India, Bangalore), Mr.Dinesh Das (IOCL Vellore) and Mr.Saurabh Kumar Kant (IOCL New Delhi). First three of the six finalists took the stand ‘For’ the topic, and the other three opted for ‘Against’ the topic.
The debate started off mildly enough with the Opening statements from each of the 6 participants. However, by the time the rebuttals and concluding statements were made, each one better than the other, the audience as well as the jury members were completely involved in the debate and the atmosphere in ‘Sovereign-II’ couldn’t have been intellectually any more hotter. At the end of the competition, Mr. Gaurav Dixit from ONGC was declared the winner in “For” Category, while Mr. Prashant Kumar Mishra from Shell India won in the “Against” category, both taking away the cash prize of US $ 2500 each.
All the other 4 finalists were also congratulated for their outstanding performances and for beating hundreds of participants to make it to the Final Round. Energy Extempore has been one of the most popular events of the Youth Forum, with more than 350 participants registering for the event. Way before the Stage-I of the event even began, the debate had already started through online blogging on different topics on the youth forum portal, www.fueltheyouth.com. In stage – I, the topic for debate was ‘Environmental justice and Economic development are two sides of the same coin’. This fascinating topic garnered very interesting responses from the contestants. All the responses in the form of opening statement, rebuttal and closing remarks were published on the website. These remarks were then evaluated to select top 18 for the next stage of Voice round. The evaluation was carried out by the distinguished jury members- Mr.Narendra Bhalla, Executive Director, OIL India Limited, Mr.S. V. Rao, Executive Director, ONGC and Mr.Kaushik Deb, Assoc. Professor, TERI University, New Delhi. The top 18 were voice tested for their communication skills and depth of knowledge of the subject, and the top 6 were thus selected for the Finale at New Delhi.
The youth forum team seeks to keep the debates flowing on the youth forum website, and thus build and mould opinions on the most urgent topics in today’s hydrocarbon industry.
Congratulations once again to all the winner, finalists and participants for making the event a great success!
