As India celebrates Children’s Day on Monday, November 14, tech giant Google announced the winners of the ‘Doodle for Google’ competition. This year, Shlok Mukherjee from Kolkata won the prize, and his doodle is being featured on google.co.in on Monday. Google said that the contest received over 1,15,000 entries by school children between classes 1 and 10, from over 100 cities in India.
This year, the theme for the contest was, “In the next 25 years, my India will…”. Sharing his thoughts about his doodle, Shlok said, “In the next 25 years, my India will have scientists develop their own eco-friendly robot for humanity’s betterment. India will have regular intergalactic travels from Earth to space. India will develop more in the field of Yoga and Ayurveda, and will get stronger in coming years.”
The judges who decided the winner for the challenge this year include actors Neena Gupta and Alia Bhat, Editor-in-Chief of Tinkle Comics Kuriakose Vaisian, and YouTube content creators Slayy Point, NDTV reported. Of the lakhs of entries, 20 were shortlisted based on the evaluation criteria of artistic merit, creativity, alignment with the contest theme, and uniqueness and novelty of the approach, according to NDTV. Then, the 20 shortlisted were subject to public voting, from which Shlok’s doodle emerged as the national winner. Apart from him, four group winners were also reportedly selected.