Dekho Apna Desh contest: State-level first prize goes to Ratlam school

India Tourism, Mumbai and the Institute of Hotel Management Bhopal jointly organized the prize distribution ceremony for the Dekho Apna Desh contest in Bhopal. The chief guests were Dr. T. Ilaiyaraaja, Secretary, Madhya Pradesh Tourism, Abhay Arvind Wadekar, MD, Madhya Pradesh Tourism, and Arpit Shah, Vikas Pandey, Rakesh Ranjan, Mr. Rohit Sarin, Malti Dutta, Assistant Director, and A. Gopal, Assistant Director, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India. The state-level first prize was awarded to PM Shri Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Ratlam. The second prizes were awarded to Kendriya Vidyalaya Bhopal, Bairasia, and Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Burhanpur."Dekho Apna Desh" is a major initiative of the Ministry of Tourism, launched in 2020.  Its objective is to promote domestic tourism and inspire Indian citizens to explore and understand the diverse cultural, historical, and natural heritage of their own country. "Dekho Apna Desh" means "Look at Your Country" and the initiative aims to instill a sense of pride and curiosity among citizens about India's rich and diverse tourist destinations.
The competition aimed to empower approximately 1.5 million students from approximately 1,900 Kendriya Vidyalayas and Navodaya Vidyalayas across the country to conceptualize and creatively design a tourism brochure for each district in the country. The competition was held between November 15 and December 15, 2024, with approximately 500,000 students from Kendriya Vidyalayas and Navodaya Vidyalayas across the country participating.  By the closing date, 2,000 brochures were received from handwritten tourism brochures prepared by students in grades 9th to 12th.