Superlative skills

19-year-old Meher Rishika Nori made the country proud by winning the India Skills Competition 2017 recently, clinching the title from among 400 students from all over the country. An initiative of the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), India Skills encourages youth to pursue vocational education. The youngster received an award and a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh from Skill Development and Entrepreneurship minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy. Union water resources minister Uma Bharti and Union Textile Minister Smriti Irani, among others were also present during the felicitation ceremony. In fact, Rishika also got to meet the former President, Pranab Mukherjee.

Rishika, who is pursuing her final year in Computer science engineering (CSE) at BVRIT Hyderabad College of Engineering for Women, competed in the category ‘IT Software Solutions for Business’, one of 26 categories in the competition. She will be leaving for Abu Dhabi along with 25 other winners in different categories for the World Skills competition later this year.

“It’s an exciting feeling,” says Rishika, adding, “Students from 77 countries are set to take part in the World Skills competition. There is too much responsibility on my shoulders to make my country proud. But I have been training hard and hope to win gold. Although my training has been tedious, I am starting to feel positive.”

The India competition had five rounds, the first of which began around June last year. Rishika got to know about the competition through her college but was unsure if she would even qualify in the first round. “I did not take it seriously until I made it through the third round. After that, I was determined to win. My category had to do with coding and web development. There were guys who were elder than me in the competition, but I beat them all!” adds Rishika.

Interestingly, Rishika was also the only girl in her category. So, how did she learn coding? “I did not take any course, but learnt it all by myself. It is all about your passion and interest. Even at the competition, I was confident that my database and design were accurate and unique,” she says. 

After completing her engineering, Rishika plans to pursue her MBA. “But I want to work first to gain experience,” Rishika concludes.