Lucknow student 2nd in Time, bags iMac computer

He said that he was greatly impressed by the quality of entries, in terms of creativity, thoughtfulness and use of English language. In a subject as wide-ranging as the person of the century,8217; there is no right or wrong answer. What was important to us was that the students communicated their choice of candidate effectively,8217; he added. The nominations ranged from Einstein, Gandhi, Bill Gates and Mother Teresa to ex-Spice Girl Geri Halliwel, Oprah Winfrey, the student8217;s own parents and friends and Kermit the Frog8217;.

Time had divided the competition into three age categories of 10-12 years, 13-15 years and 16-18 years, asking students to nominate the person they thought was most important in the century. The students had to write an essay of more than 250 words explaining their choice.

The panel of judges included Maximo V Soliven, publisher of The Phillipine Star; Dr Kapil Singh, lecturer at the National Institute of Education, Singapore; Simon Tham of the English unit of the Hong Kong Education Department; Desmond Sim, a Singapore-based playwright, painter and poet and Gita Hariharan, India-based novelist and Time8216;s editorial staff including associate editor Aprism Ghosh, senior writer Anthony Spaeth and Time8216;s publisher, Andrew Butcher.

Commenting on Jacob8217;s style of writing, the judges had said that he adopts a sophisticated and mature style in describing Hitler8217; and his essay was a good balance of human interest detail and argument8230;. with an original twist to the idea of important person8217;.

The full list of the winners is to be announced in Time8216;s August 23 Influential Asians of the Century edition 8211; a special double issue dedicated to the most influential Asian men and women of the past 100 years.