The students of Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology (MNNIT) — the only National Institute of Technology in the state — are gearing up to participate in the first-of-its-kind national-level television competition “Challenge Chatni”.

The programme, to be broadcast by Doordarshan early next year, aims at promoting science and technology with thrust on social issues among the school students.

Students of 12 top ranking technical institutions, including 9 IITs and three NITs, will be participating in the programme, which is being organised at the initiative of the Ministry of Science and Technology. The part of the episode at MNNIT will be shot on November 13 and 14.

“The 13-episode programme is being organised by National Council for Science and Technology Communication (NCSTC) of Union Ministry of Science and Technology, New Delhi,” said Professor Baran Samaddar, Director of MNNIT.

“They have been assigned the job of producing the serial on the theme of ‘Technical Solutions to Real Life Challenges’. We have agreed to support the initiative as it is in sync with our own mission to help the society,” added Samaddar.

Under the programme, social challenges would be thrown to the students by the panelist — selected by the ministry.

The experts would be from top technical institutes of the country and renowned scientists from the likes of Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. The students will then have to provide an immediate solution to the problem with live demonstration.

“Three teams would compete for the best solution on a given real life challenge in the final round. The best team would be conferred with the NCSTC Award,” he added.

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