HDFC ERGO General Insurance Company, has announced the winners of its 9th Insurance Awareness Award Junior Quiz 2024 in Mumbai on its 22nd Foundation Day. The finale witnessed a battle of knowledge among six teams, where Nirmay Patel and Shourya Banerjee from New Era Senior Secondary School, Vadodara emerged as the winner from ~3,200 participating schools this year. Giving a tough competition to them were MCM Matriculation Higher Secondary School, Chennai and Cambridge Court High School, Jaipur who secured commendable first and second runner up positions, respectively.
The winners of the quiz were awarded a prize money of Rs 2,25,000, followed by the first and second runners-up with Rs 1,50,000 and Rs 75,000 respectively. The balance three finalist teams were awarded cash prize of Rs 30,000 each.
The core theme of the quiz this year was ‘Broadening Boundaries – Insurance Awareness across Bharat’. Aligned with this thought, the Company reached out to diverse geographies and demographics, ensuring equal opportunity for the children to participate in this National level quiz, irrespective of their social and economic backgrounds. For the first time, 660+ Government Schools registered for this quiz, out of which ~430 schools were from Hindi and Tamil mediums. Also, for the first time, the quiz reached out to the schools from the North East regions and 250 schools participated from there. Besides, 32% of the schools who registered for the quiz were from small cities and towns of <10 lakhs population. The quiz also saw a healthy participation of 47% girl students, thus making it a true inclusive initiative for the children.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Anuj Tyagi, MD & CEO, HDFC ERGO General Insurance, said, “While India is making significant strides towards inclusive development, insurance penetration remains alarmingly low at around 4%. On the other side, India’s school education system is one of the largest in the world with over 1.5 million schools. We, at HDFC ERGO firmly believe that our young minds are the architects of India’s future and therefore, it is imperative to equip and empower them with insurance literacy so that they can take informed decisions and lead financially secured lives as they grow. We started this initiative in 2016 with just 18 schools in one city and it gives us an immense pride to witness the way this quiz has gained popularity over the years and so far, we have reached out to ~25 lakh students from across ~200 cities of India – thus making this event as one of the landmark event for the students of this country.”
This year’s quiz journey began with a massive pool of ~3,200 schools in the preliminary rounds which was followed by the cluster rounds, four zonal rounds and one eliminator round. Six top teams finally secured their places in the highly anticipated grand finale. Post the grand finale, the students were also taken for an educational excursion to Nehru Science Centre (Mumbai), which is India’s largest interactive science centre, to provide them with an opportunity to explore hands-on exhibits that sparked curiosity and scientific inquiry.
