The Birla White Yuva Ratna National Awards distribution was held at the ITC’s Grand Maratha in Mumbai on January 23, 2010. More than 90 architectural colleges from 21 states in India submitted about 2500 entries, along with 30 from Sri Lanka and Nepal. The students had been asked to design a global knowledge centre and knowledge media centre.
Now in its sixth year, the Birla White Yuva Ratna Awards was instituted in 2004 to encourage young architects to push the boundaries of design and creativity. This year, the contest was also opened to students of civil engineering with the theme ‘White Cement – a civil engineers delight’. Colleges, including IITs across India, sent out 1372 entries.
Chief guest Rajashree Birla said, “This year, the awards gained substantial momentum and the expanded profile has encouraged more students to participate — not just from India but the world over.”
Also present on the occasion were OP Puranmalka, business head – Cement Business; Dr Dhariwal, president – Birla White; and PK Ray, Jt Executive President – Birla White.
For the Global Knowledge Centre, the winners included Gayani Lakshika Hewage from University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, in first place; Pathirana Kumarage Daminda Prasad from Department of Architecture, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, in second place; Arvind R, School of Architecture & Planning, Anna University, Tamil Nadu, in third place; Nidhi Vinay, Dayananda Sagar College of Engineering, Karnataka, also in third place; and Mukul Sharma, IIT, Roorkee, UP, in fourth place.
For the theme of Knowledge Media Centre, the winners were Richard Sadokpam, School of Planning And Architecture, JNTU, AP, in first place; V Girish, Aayojan School of Architecture, Rajasthan, in second place; and Ankit Singh, IIT, Roorkee, UP, in third place.
The judges included architects Pinkish Shah, Srinivas Murthy, Kshitij Limaye and Quaid Doongerwala.