18 young achievers feted

Likuta Persis Tissicca, a class IX student of Hollotoli School, Dimapur was among the 18 young achievers under The Telegraph Edugraph 18 Under 18 Awards. The winners in all categories were felicitated at the ceremony held in Kolkata on March 22.
Likuta is a Taekwondo champion. At first she was not particularly keen about competing in the beginning, but with her coach’s motivation and support, she represented Nagaland and won gold in the Under-41 kg at the 12th National Taekwondo Championship 2021. Zaiyigum Zeliang, also a class III student of Hollotoli School was felicitated under the Special Mention Category. Zaiyigum is a full stack developer. He developed the app Parent Teacher Interaction (PTI) to facilitate digital communication between parents and teachers.
A- first- of-its-kind initiative, The Telegraph Edugraph 18 Under 18 Awards has been instituted to recognise young achievers under the age of 18 from eastern India.
After its launch in December 2021, more than 1000 nomination poured in from nearly 200 schools across West Bengal, Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand, Assam, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Manipur, Sikkim, Tripura, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh. 18 achievers were selected from the top 50 after a round of interviews.
The jury consisted of singer-songwriter Anupam Roy; grandmaster Dibyendu Barua; psychiatrist Jai Ranjan Ram; Olympic shooter and Arjuna award winner Joydeep Karmakar; author and professor Kunal Basu; actress Paoli Dam; professor and former director of IIT Kharagpur Partha Pratim Chakrabarti; Jungle Crows founder Paul Walsh; and dancer-actress Sreenanda Shankar.