Minister of State for Defence Sanjay Seth and Minister of State for Education Jayant Chaudhary felicitated the winners at the Veer Gatha 5.0 awards ceremony in New Delhi. This is a joint initiative of the Ministries of Defence and Education.

Akashvani correspondent reports, under the Veer Gatha 5.0, this year 100 winners have been awarded. These winners were selected from 91 schools across 18 countries at the national level under three categories. Each winner received a cash prize of ten thousand rupees and an opportunity to witness the Republic Day Parade 2026 at Kartavya Path as special guests.

This year, nearly 1 crore 92 lakh students from around 1 lakh 92 thousand schools participated in the project, marking the highest-ever participation since its inception in 2021.

Talking to Akashvani News, Akshita Sharma, a student from Air Force School Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu said that she wrote a poem on Rani Gaidinliu of Nagaland. She said that Rani Gaidinliu was honoured with the title of Rani by former Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru.

Talking to Akashvani News, another student from a CBSE school situated in Malaysia Ivaan Agarwal shared that he drew a drawing of Constable Kamlesh Kumari for this competition. He said that the constable saved the parliament and the lives of the leaders during the Parliament attack of 2001. Manisha Gupta from Rajasthan participated in this competition through drawing a painting of Shivaji Maharaj. She showed her happiness over getting the award.

Project Veer Gatha was initiated in 2021 as part of the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav to mark India’s 75th year of Independence.

The initiative aims to celebrate the courage of Gallantry awardees by showcasing their heroic deeds and life journeys, while nurturing a sense of patriotism and civic responsibility among students.