Jamshedpur school wins crossword contest

With record participation of over 850 schools from 32 cities, CBSE Cryptic Crossword Contest 2014 is the world’s biggest and nation’s premier crossword-testing platform for high school students. It seeks to promote excellence by encouraging students to undertake the habit of solving crossword puzzles.

Chief guest D K Sarraf, CMD, ONGC, gave away the prizes in the presence of guests of honour A K Ambhastha, IFS, CVO, ONGC; Sunil Barthawal, joint secretary, ministry of steel; K N Jha, IPNTFAS, DG NICF; S Venkatesh, director, NCDC; Manoj Shrivastava, IRTS, ED, Indian Railways; Pramath Raj Sinha, first dean of IBS, Hyderabad and founder Ashoka University; and Vivek Kumar Singh, principal secretary, environment and forest, government of Bihar. Satbir Silas Bedi, chairman, CBSE, was the chief guest at the final rounds conducted a day before.

“Crossword puzzles help students improve their vocabulary, reasoning, lateral thinking and analytical abilities. Deciphering solutions from the given clues helps young minds develop other cognitive skills, like making inferences, evaluating alternatives and drawing conclusion. Learning becomes so much more enjoyable as different mental faculties are challenged,” Vivek Kumar Singh, the chief mentor of CCCC 2014, said.