2018 Judges for UPU’s letter writing competition come from the worlds of education, publishing, museums, and charity to search for one gold medal winner among millions of competitive entries

“Imagine you are a letter travelling through time. What message do you wish to convey to your readers?” is this year`s theme for the annual International Letter Writing Competition for Young People competition organized by the Universal Postal Union.

Now in its 47th year, the letter competition invites children up to the age of 15 from all over the world to express themselves in a letter. In doing so, they join millions of children over the decades who, in the form of a powerful letter, have captured their joy of language and love of words.

Children such as last year’s gold medal winner, Eva Palacios from Togo, whose imaginary letter to the UN Secretary-General António Guterres was aimed at the horrors of forced marriage. Eva wrote, “Child marriage is the act of marrying a child who has neither legally nor emotionally reached marriageable age. Child marriage is the result of deep-rooted traditions, poverty, ignorance, early pregnancy or a lack of law.” Her compelling letter ended with this memorable line, “They are married because they are seen as a burden and another mouth for their parents to feed. They are married because … because … because …”

Given the astonishing quality of the children’s letters, the Judge’s role is of fundamental importance. Just as in every previous year, in 2018, UPU has found judges of quality, sincerity and a burning commitment to improving children’s literacy and skills of expression.

The judges are: Isabelle Mili, a Professor of Didactic Arts and Music at the University of Geneva; Nancy Pope, the head curator at the History Department a the Smithsonian National Postal Museum; B. Robert Kreiser, Adjunct Professor of History at George Mason University; Michael Hamish Glen, Co-Founder of Interpret Europe—European Association for Heritage Interpretation; Jonathan Seaton, Co-founder of Twinkl Education and Publishing; and Alexandrina Iremciuc, Communication Manager at Geneva for Education Publishing.

Michael Hamish perhaps best summed up the views of every judge, and the spirit of the competition, when he said, “I am honoured to be asked to judge the work of young people who have so much to offer and who can encourage those of us who are older to look at things with a new perspective.”

Each year, the UPU International Bureau announces a theme. Participating countries then organize the competition at the national level with support from its Post and often with the support of education authorities. All entries must be submitted through the national Post. Each country chooses a national winner and submits this entry to the international round, held by the UPU. An international jury, chosen by the UPU International Bureau, judges the letters and selects the winners and entries worthy of a special mention.

The post Judges chosen for UPU’s world-renowned letter writing competition appeared first on Core Sector Communique.

Bollywood Celebrities Zeenat Aman, Padmini Kolhapure, Preeti Jhangiani, Shillpi Sharma and Fashion Designer Falguni were the judges at the jury round

Mumbai, 20^th July 2017: The Jury round for the 7^th National Jewellery Awards 2017 organized by All India Gems and Jewellery Trade Federation (GJF), was held today in Mumbai. Famous Bollywood celebrities Zeenat Aman, Padmini Kolhapure, Preeti Jhangiani, Shillpi Sharma and fashion designer Falguni (Falguni Shane Peacock) were the judges at the jury round.

Mr. Anantha Padmanaban, Director – GJF and NJA Committee Convener, said,” Today was the last day of the jury round and we were able to have some of the prominent names from the world of bollywood, as a panel of experts as our jury for this year’s awards. All the nominations enrolled for the awards are on display for the jury round. The judges are judging based on the jewellery patterns and designs which are unique and innovative. As organizers, GJF is proud to conduct such awards in the gems and jewellery sector, to encourage the enormous potential we have in the industry.”

He further added, “This year with the help of Ernst & Young, the award process was more stringent and at the same time simple and friendly for applicants. We also made registrations for the awards online this year, as an effort towards digital initiative of Govt of India, to encourage people towards digitalization.”

The National Jewellery Awards comprises of Total 25 Award categories that includes Jewellery Awards 12, Excellence Awards 5, Store Awards 5, Designer Award 2, and Student Awards with a substantial amount as scholarship given to the winning students.  All awards have a timeline and appropriate assessment process wherein each category in order to define the brilliance of the winner in the most adequate procedure that will propel the vital recognition that one accurately earns.

Top jewellers, Govt Officials, Industrialists & Bollywood celebrities will be seen on the Grand Finale on 28th July, 2017 at Hotel Grand Hyatt, Mumbai.

About GJF

GJF is a national trade federation established for the promotion and growth of gems and jewellery trade across India. It represents over 4,50,000 players comprising manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers, distributors, laboratories, gemologists, designers and allied services to the domestic Gems & Jewellery industry. The Gems & Jewellery industry is a hand crafted and  labour intensive with over 1 crore strong labour force engaged in the manufacturing of jewellery industry in the domestic sector. It represents various industry segments such as Manufacturers, Retailers, Wholesalers, Allied, gold, silver, platinum, diamonds, gem stones, machinery, etc. including the entire industry value chain from bullion to retail. Itis highly fragmented across the value chain with 80% of players operating in the unorganised sector, which are mostly family run, labour intensive, and use indigenous technology. Indian gems & jewellery industry is the leading foreign exchange earner, as well as one of the fastest growing industries in the country. The market for gems and jewellery worldwide has grown steadily over the last few years with a share of 29 % in global Jewellery consumption. It contributes about 6 – 7% of the country’s GDP, with almost 40% women employment and it plays an important role in maintaining the current account deficit and export-led growth of the economy.

The post GJF’s NJA Awards 2017 Jury Round concluded appeared first on Core Sector Communique.

Sardar Patel Institute of Technology, Andheri witnessed its 3 days bombastic splendor.  This year UDAAN witnessed a cinematic journey through its bioscope, which amazingly stands as this year’s theme.  After being a huge success last year, UDAAN is all set to contribute to the society using students’ enthusiasm. The fest is the right platform for students to showcase their passion for dance, drama, literature, music, fine arts and more. Bollywood Choreographer Sumit Khetan and Bollywood Actor Ruslaan Mumtaz were recently seen at Bhavan’s college as judges of a fashion show and a dance event. By judging the fashion show actor shared his debut film was shot in the same college. He enjoyed coming here. Also added that in today’s life, students are very intelligent and enjoy lot more than we actually could. While talking to media Sumit Khetan said, “ it was great to see most of the people dance in the talent round in the fashion show which entertained him thoroughly. Sumit also said colleges are giving great opportunity to the students by providing this platform.

India’s top most Hindi rock band Coshish made their headlining act opened by Kashmeer and Clay Crown. Last but not the least to state this festival inaugurated by Mr. Dinesh Waghmare Municipal commissioner NMMC turns out to be a huge delight and success to the city youth.

The post Ruslaan Mumtaz and Sumit Khetan Judges a fashion show at Bhavan’s College appeared first on Core Sector Communique.

Awarded ‘Best Start Up’ South East Asia at ‘Talent Unleashed’ just six months after setting up

Singapore, 24 July 2014 – Jamey Merkel, CEO and Co-Founder of Kluje.com–pronounced “KLOO-JAY”—an online service platform that helps homeowners and agents find better contractors, has recently been awarded as the regional winner for the Best Start Up Award for South East Asia at the Talent Unleashed Awards.

The Talent Unleashed Awards is a technology-based accolades program developed by global IT&T recruitment and technology services specialist, Talent International, and judged locally by Patrick Grove, CEO and Founder of Catcha Group, as well as Joel Neoh, Head of Groupon in Asia Pacific.

The award aims to discover and support extraordinary technology talent in the Asia Pacific region that shows potential to change the world by revolutionising industries and driving innovation.

Said Sir Richard Branson, “The Talent Unleashed Awards program reminds me of how important it is to bring out the best in people – something I’ve always been passionate about. It’s not just the individual’s responsibility to shine, it’s our responsibility to foster growth and this is certainly true in the technology sector.”

Started with his initiative to provide an easy way to find reliable and professional contractors in Singapore, Kluje.com founders Jamey Merkel and Andrew Esmonde-White established Kluje.com in late 2013. In just six months it showed rapid and dynamic growth, recognized by being named one of Singapore’s top 20 startups by Singapore Business Review and also being named a top 50 startup in Asia (out of 500) at Echelon 2014.

Shared Jamey, “It is such an honor to be awarded as the best startup in Talent Unleashed in South East Asia. I believe technology has a big role in driving social change. I hope Kluje.com’s participation in Talent Unleashed will encourage more technology professionals as individuals as well as startups to keep innovating to make our society better.”

The Talent Unleashed regional winners will next be judged in a final round by global judges Sir Richard Branson, Founder of the Virgin Group and Steve Wozniak, Apple Co-Founder, to win a five-day business-mentoring workshop at the Branson Centre for Entrepreneurship in South Africa in November this year.

Steve Wozniak praised the local start up scene,  “When we think of great startups and where they began, you can’t help but look towards the United States and Silicon Valley where I first started, and the history-making achievements there. But more and more we’re seeing interesting startups flourish outside of Silicon Valley in places such as the UK and India but also in Israel, New Zealand, Singapore, Finland, and Brazil to name just some”.

Along with the countdown to the finals, Kluje.com is not resting on its laurels but moving its business to the next level by preparing to develop a mobile app for homeowners, property agents, facility managers and contractors to manage jobs and bids on the go. The app will be built in-houseby technology startup accelerator, GHX, and will be launched shortly.

The final winners for the Talent Unleashed Awards will be revealed concurrently at events taking place in Auckland, Sydney, Hong Kong and Singapore on July 31^st 2014.

About Kluje.com

Kluje.com was founded to provide homeowners with a reliable and easy way to find contractors for their home improvement projects, routine maintenance, or just a few odd jobs around the house.

All other details can be found on:

Website: https://www.kluje.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/KlujeSingapore

Twitter: @KlujeSingapore

Blog: http://www.kluje.com/blog/

About GHX

GHX (Gilcrux Holdings) is one of the world’s most innovative investment holding companies. Founded by serial entrepreneur, John Fearon, GHX holds his equity in a growing number of exciting startups and established businesses. Spread across many industries, all entities in the GHX portfolio have in common to add technology to traditional businesses (financial services, insurance, invoice factoring, site back-ups, contracting hiring) to accelerate market penetration and improve on consumer experience in a cost-effective and fast growing manner.

www.ghx.co

The post Singapore startup Kluje.com facing entrepreneur icons Branson and Wozniak as judges in global technology talent competition appeared first on Core Sector Communique.

CENTER VALLEY, Pa., October 3, 2013 – Olympus has announced the panel of eminent authorities in the field of microscopy and imaging who will be the judges for the 10th annual BioScapes International Digital Imaging Competition (www.olympusbioscapes.com). This year’s judges will gather later this month to review more than 2,000 life science images and movies submitted from around the world; Olympus will honor the most exceptional and significant with prizes and worldwide publicity.

            This year’s judging panel includes four individuals widely respected in the fields of microscopy and imaging. They are James E. Bear, Ph.D., of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill; Brian Matsumoto, Ph.D., professor emeritus at University of California, Santa Barbara; Alison J. North, Ph.D., of The Rockefeller University, New York City; and Lei Zhu, Ph.D., of Florida State University, Tallahassee.

            The Olympus BioScapes International Digital Imaging Competition, widely recognized as the world’s leading international life science light microscopy photo forum, celebrates its 10^th anniversary this year.  The competition pays homage to the amazing stories being told through the images and movies captured in life science laboratories, and to the remarkable confluence of science and art. It carries a top prize valued at $5,000. Nine other submissions win prizes, and several dozen honorable mentions are awarded. Selected winning images are included in a nationwide exhibit tour. Each competition entrant can submit up to five still images, image sequences, or movies. Any magnification and brand of compound light microscope can be used; judges are given no equipment/brand information when judging. Winners are notified in late October and publicly announced in December. For more information, visit www.olympusbioscapes.com. 

The post Judges Named for 2013 Olympus BioScapes Digital Imaging Competition® appeared first on Core Sector Communique.

Mumbai,May,2013 : For over twenty years Shiamak Davar has given an opportunity to thousands of dance enthusiasts to learn dance and perform on stage. His Summer Funk stage has been home to the biggest Bollywood stars and has run to packed audiences cheering on keen performers from across Mumbai. This year yet again, the show wowed everyone and had them on their feet.

Summer Funk this year had an interesting twist. Every class became a competing team and the show was stage to SHIAMAK’s Dance Competition. Artistic Director, Shiamak Davar personally judged and selected the deserving team thereby giving them the title of the Best Dance Class in Mumbai! The students who learnt a variety of styles including Shiamak Style (contemporary), Shabop (Hip Hop & Street Funk), Bollywood Jazz and Belly Dancing; working as teams; practicing the choreography and making their costumes and props as interesting as possible! This healthy competition helped build team spirit and urged students to work harder and push their dance-ability! The winning teams will now become a part of the national level dance competition between all cities where SHIAMAK holds dance classes.

‘For the longest time, summers have become synonymous with Summer Funk for me and all my students. They don’t go out on vacations just to be on the Summer Funk stage! For me, seeing all my students performing on stage makes me believe that dance can really heal. Everyone who danced on stage is a winner for me! I’ve always focused on imparting complete and correct knowledge with technique in a fun, relaxed environment; and this is what makes it special for all students. The Summer Funk stage is magnetic, there is something special about it’, said Shiamak.

The show included performances by students of ages four to eighty with special performances by senior citizens, ladies classes and an inspiring musical tribute by students from his not for profit organization, Victory Arts Foundation (VAF).

Also present for the show and cheering the students was the cast of the uncoming Bollywood release, Shotcut Romeo. Neil Nitin Mukesh, Amisha Patel, Pooja Gupta and Director, Susi Ganesan took to the stage and danced with Shiamak and his protégé, Master Marzi (celebrity judge on dance reality show, Dance India Dance). ‘I think song and dance is at the core of Bollywood and I wish all the luck to the extremely talent team of Shortcut Romeo for the film.’ said Shiamak.

The post Guru of Dance, Shiamak Davar judges the SHIAMAK Dance Competition taking the Summer Funk experience to the next level! appeared first on Core Sector Communique.