Nikhil Yadav wins T Prasad Memorial Gold Medal 2025

Nikhil Yadav, a final-year student at the Northern Regional Institute of Printing Technology (NRIPT) won the T Prasad Memorial Gold Medal at the fourth annual T Prasad Memorial Print Competition, held on 21-22 June 2025. Organised by the Offset Printers’ Association (OPA), the event honours T Prasad, principal at NRIPT from 1982 to 1993, whose work, Dr Kamal Chopra, a key OPA member, said, transformed print education in India. “It inspires students to push the boundaries of innovation, ensuring the printing industry’s future remains vibrant.”

Open to NRIPT students in the Diploma in Printing Technology, the competition highlights advancements in the field. It began with a written test featuring multiple-choice questions, evaluated by a five-member jury: print consultant Anubhava Shiksharthi (Nagpur), Beer Bahadur Singh (head, GP Patna), print technologist Sunil Kumar Joshi (New Delhi), former Times of India deputy general manager Sumesh Sharma, and print entrepreneur Sanjay Kathuria (New Delhi).

Three finalists, Nikhil Yadav, Mohd Arbaz, and Saloni Gupta, progressed to the final oral presentation in NRIPT’s seminar hall. Each had five minutes to prepare a speech on one of five jury-assigned topics. Judging criteria included content accuracy, presentation finesse, confidence, Q&A responses, and an audience poll, with penalties for presentations under five or over seven minutes.

Nikhil Yadav’s outstanding performance earned him the title of Top Print Student of the Year 2025, a gold medal, and a INR 25,000 cash prize. The certificate was presented by Prof Sanjay Srivastava, Vice Chancellor of Mahatma Gandhi Central University, Motihari, and Prof Rajendrakumar Anayath, OSD Government of Haryana and former Vice Chancellor of DCRUST, Sonepat. The formal award ceremony will take place later this year.

Reflecting on the event’s significance, Dr Chopra said, “This competition embodies T Prasad’s vision of nurturing talent to lead the printing industry forward.”