The National Digital Elocution Competition (NDEC) 2010—organised by Reliance World for the fifth consecutive year—attracted around 8000 participants from various schools across the country.

More than 6000 elocution videos were recorded nationwide using VDO Contest—a web based application that allows participants to record their elocution video online. After their video was published on the NDEC website, participants were able to gather Online Votes from their family and friends during the Online Voting period.

It was heartening to see such a vast pool of talent and the judges had a tough job on hand selecting the semi-finalists. A good command over the language, the ability to structure their thoughts in a manner that conveyed an understanding and appreciation of the given topic and the ability to express their views in relevance to the topic with confidence is what distinguished the semi-finalists.

52 Participants—26 from the junior group and 26 from the senior—have been selected for the semi-finals.

The semi-finals will be held on 9th March, 2010 on Video Conference. The semi-finalists would be required to visit a Reliance World in their city and present their elocution on the given topic. A panel of judges, based in Mumbai, would see and hear the participants and adjudge the competition live.

Topics for the semi-finals:

Junior Group: If trees could speak
Senior Group: India in 2040

The finals will be held on 12th March, 2010. Selected participants would be given new topics and would be required to present their elocution on Video Conferencing from a Reliance World in their city. Just like the semi-finals, they would be judged live by a panel of judges based in Mumbai.