Classmate Young Author and Artist Contest is India's largest quest for young writing and drawing talent and has emerged as a much-awaited event on school campuses, across the country. Classmate Young Author Contest is a story writing competition open for students from classes 9 to 12 and Classmate Young Artist contest is a painting competition for students from classes 5 to 8.

ITC Ltd.’s Classmate Young Author Contest 2006, has been launched in 34 cities. In addition to 15 cities covered last year, the contest will be held in 19 more cities. Over 2,00,000 children from 6000 schools are expected to participate. Eminent writer Ruskin Bond, continues to head the national jury of the Classmate Young Author Contest for the fourth year. Publishers Rupa & Co. will publish a book comprising 16 best stories from the contest. The book will be edited by Ruskin Bond. The Classmate Young Author 2006 will be awarded a seven-day literary trip to Paris, widely regarded as the ‘art capital’ of the world. All finalists from the various cities will win exciting prizes like Home PCs, Camcorders, digi-cams and much more.

In conjunction with Classmate Young Author Contest 2006, ITC is also organizing Classmate Young Artist Contest 2006. This painting contest is meant to be a celebration of colours with children of younger age group. The best 40 paintings from all over the country will feature in a travelling exhibition, across select metros.

Classmate Young Author and Artist Contest 2006 is being organized by ITC Limited. ITC-Welcomgroup is the Hospitality sponsor for both the contests.

For the first time, Classmate Young Author and Artist Contest 2006 will organize a special on-campus Classmate Day in select schools across all cities. This interestingly designed preliminary round will create a celebratory atmosphere in the school campus to learn, explore, enjoy and connect to the literary and art world. The students get to witness an eclectic mix of workshops by professionals of repute, interact with them and participate in the contest.