Bhubaneswar, Jan. 12: Students of SOA (Deemed to be University) have won top laurels at a debate organised to mark the National Youth Day here on Saturday.

     A 10-members team of SOA NSS participated in the group discussion and debate competition held by the Vivekananda Kendra, Kanyakumari, on the subject “Youth for National Resurgence”.The team secured the first position in the competition in which teams from several other educational institutions also took part.      The team, led by Programme Officer Ms. Sukirti Mohanty, comprised Sourav, Amarendra, Amrita, Akash, Astha, Anindita, Deshna, Tushar, Kalapi and Debasish. The winners were later felicitated by the SOA Vice-Chancellor Prof. Amit Banerjee and Dean (Students’ Welfare) Dr. Jyoti Ranjan Das.

     The National Youth Day is observed to mark the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda.National Treasurer of the Vivekananda Rock Memorial, Kanyakumari, Mr. Hanumant Rao attended the programme as the chief speaker while Mr. Subrat Tripathy, CEO of Dhamra Port Company Ltd (DPCL) was the chief guest.      Another 10-member NSS team from SOA led by Programme Officer Ms. Madhusmita Nayak also participated in a separate National Youth Day programme conducted by the Centre for Youth and Social Development (CYSD) here. The members of the team were Soumesh, Himanshu, Shantiswarup, Jyotirmay, Nikhil, Prajnasmita, Sunita, Mohit and Pratik.