The third edition of the T Prasad Memorial Print Competition for students at the Northern Regional Institute of Printing Technology (NRIPT) took place on 7 June. The competition, named in honour of educator T Prasad, celebrates his contribution to modernizing print education in India. Prasad, who served as principal from 1982 to 1993, also played a crucial role in upgrading several government and university printing presses and was a visiting faculty member at Motilal Nehru Regional Engineering College, now MNIT, Allahabad.
Organized annually by the Offset Printers’ Association (OPA), the competition encourages students to stay abreast of the latest developments and innovations in the printing field. This year, all NRIPT diploma students were eligible to compete for the title of Best Student of 2024.
The competition began with a preliminary written test, featuring multiple-choice questions evaluated by a five-member jury, including Diptendu Chowdhury, former Principal of RIT Kolkata, Rakesh Tiwari, officiating principal NRIPT, Beer Bahadur Singh HOD – incharge department of printing technology, GP Patna, Sunil Kumar Joshi, print technologist from New Delhi, and Nafish from Prayagraj.Â
The event was supervised by Anubhava Shiksharthi, print consultant from Nagpur, and Ashwani Gupta from Jalandhar. Out of 52 participants, 45 students took the MCQ test.
Following the preliminary round, five students advanced to the final oral round — Khushi, Astha Pandey, Aaditya Kasarwani (all final-year students), and Aparna Mishra and Dilip Mundrika Kushwaha (second-year students).
The finale, held in the NRIPT seminar hall, required each finalist to speak on one of five topics provided by the judges, with five minutes to prepare. Presentations were evaluated based on content quality and reliability, presentation style and confidence, a Q&A session, and an audience poll. Marks were adjusted if students spoke for less than five or more than seven minutes.
After rigorous evaluation, Aparna Mishra, a second-year student, emerged as the winner of the third edition of the T Prasad Memorial Print Competition. She was awarded the Gold Medal and a cash prize of Rs. 25,000. The award ceremony will coincide with the International Conference on Sustainable Printing & Packaging at Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Avadh University, Ayodhya, on 7 September 2024.
