Sri Vijaya Puram, Aug. 12: The Andaman and Nicobar Administration is organizing a series of Awareness-cum-Orientation Workshops on the ‘Gems of India Challenge 2026’ across the Islands to encourage students, youth and emerging digital creators to participate in the national initiative and showcase the unique stories, culture, heritage and tourism potential of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
As part of this initiative, awareness workshops were organised today at JNRM, ANCOL and Andaman Law College in Sri Vijaya Puram. Resource persons from the Information, Publicity, and Tourism Department and My Bharat enlightened the students about the ‘Gems of India Challenge’, launched by the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Government of India. The Challenge is a national initiative aimed at identifying, nurturing and promoting grassroots digital creators from across the country.
During the one-hour sessions held at each college, the resource persons covered various topics, including an introduction to the Gems of India Challenge, awareness about the initiative, registration through MyWAVES, and a demonstration of the online registration and content submission process. During the lively interaction sessions, the resource persons provided detailed information about the ‘Gems of India Challenge 2026’ and addressed the students’ queries.
The ‘Gems of India Challenge’ encourages creators to present the culture, heritage, tourism, traditions, history and distinctive achievements of their districts through authentic digital storytelling. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands is among the six States/UTs selected for the Pilot Phase.
Under the Challenge, participants are required to create and submit original digital content of 1 to 3 minutes’ duration through the MyWAVES section of the WAVES OTT platform. The submission window for the Pilot Phase is open from Aug. 1 to Aug. 31, 2026.
The schedule of the Awareness-cum-Orientation Workshops from Aug. 13 onwards is as follows:
The Administration has called upon students, youth, aspiring filmmakers, vloggers, photographers, storytellers and other creative minds of the Islands to actively participate in the Challenge and use the opportunity to showcase the unique identity of the Islands to a national audience. Creators can participate through the MyWAVES section of the WAVES OTT platform and submit their original content within the stipulated period ending Aug. 31, 2026.