Honda Cars India today held the 13th edition of the Young Engineer and Scientist’s (Y-E-S) Award for 2019-20 and awarded 14 students from IITs, the renowned science and technology institutes, across the country.
The Y-E-S Award is bestowed upon brilliant minds from IITs after a meticulous evaluation by a jury of senior Honda executives and prominent Indian scientists. With the latest edition of Y-E-S program, the company has recognised and rewarded over 168 students in 13 years.
The Y-E-S Award was instituted by the Honda Foundation in India in 2007 and is facilitated by Honda Cars India to nurture young students who have excelled in the area of science and technology and aspire for higher academic achievement. With this program, the Honda Foundation hopes to encourage and promote concepts of eco technology among the young generation while also strengthening interaction and exchange between Japanese and Indian youth expected to lead science, technology and industry.
Chief guest, Mr Satoshi Suzuki, Ambassador of Japan to India, presented the award to the students in recognition of their outstanding all-round performance in academics. Also present on the occasion were Akira Kojima, Director, Honda Foundation and Shirish Garud, Senior Fellow -The Energy and Research Institute (TERI).
An award of US $3,000 each, was presented to 14 students selected from six IITs – Bombay, Madras, Kharagpur, Kanpur, Roorkee and Delhi – on the basis of a comprehensive selection process. Each recipient has to utilise the award solely for pursuing education/ skill development.
In addition, every Y-E-S Award recipient becomes eligible for the Y-E-S Award Plus, an internship program offered at a company or research institute in Japan for two and half months (10 weeks) and receives US$ 7,000 for the same.
Talking about the Y-E-S Award, Gaku Nakanishi, President and CEO, Honda Cars India, said, “It is a proud moment for us to see through successful completion of the 13th edition of Y-E-S Award. The experience and response from the students has been phenomenal this year with over 495 students’ participating from various IITs. It is a delight to witness the sheer scale of participation and enthusiasm from students to demonstrate their exemplary work, year after year.”
“Y-E-S Award, for us, is a way to acknowledge the hard work and determination of the students, with an aim to power their dreams towards creating value to society”, he concluded.