Bhubaneswar: Aiming to create awareness among children about the importance of fish and fishery products in people’s lives, the Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) is organizing a national level quiz competition ‘Marine Quest 2017’ for school students across the coastal states of India.
The Odisha rounds of the competition are scheduled to be held here on August 12. Regional rounds will also be held in Kerala, Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Goa, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh.
The winning teams from the regional rounds will compete in Grand Finale to be organised in Kochi, Kerala, on August 24. The contest is open for students of Classes VIII to XII, of all educational boards— State/CBSE/ICSE.
“We will host the regional level competition in nine coastal states. This is the fourth edition of the competition and MPEDA’s focus is on making children aware of the contribution of marine products exports to our national economy,” said MPEDA Chairman Dr A Jayathilak.
The winning team at the Marine Quest 2017 finals stands to win Rs 25,000 cash award. The first and second runners up will get a prize of Rs 15,000 and Rs 5,000 respectively.
“Around 60% of the quiz questions will be related directly to the fisheries sector and the remaining will be mostly general knowledge,” the Chairman added.
MPEDA will arrange for accommodation and food, and reimburse the travel expenses (up to 3-tier AC train ticket fare) for the qualifying team and one accompanying person for attending the semifinal/final rounds.