HDFC Standard Life Spell Bee - India Spells 2010

The second season of much awaited 'HDFC Standard Life Spell Bee - India Spells 2010', the Indian counterpart of the highly acclaimed Spell Bee, USA, kick starts in your city today.

Spell Bee 2010 is a unique and scholarly education series in a fun-filled quiz format under the patronage of Spelling Bee USA, a prestigious annual event in the US with a lineage of 85 years. The last season of Spell Bee –India Spells 2009 received an overwhelming response from parents, teachers from over 650 schools across 11 cities. The second season is being conducted on a bigger platform, inviting participants from around 2000 schools across 12 cities (Delhi, Lucknow, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Kochi, Hyderabad, and Chennai) and students of 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th grades to participate.

Keeping in mind the resounding success of Spell Bee in Delhi last year, the second season of Spell Bee has sought participation from 2000 schools, as compared to 700 schools last year. The competition will be organized at Sawan Public School, Bhatti Mines Road, New Delhi.

Speaking about Spell Bee Mr. Rajeev Banerjee, Vice-President, Alternate Brand Solutions India Limited said, "The English language has over the years been woven with much prominence into India's lingual fabric. Spell Bee aims at strengthening the basics of the language amongst Indian students and give a fillip to their proficiency in English. The contest brings back the spelling mania for young Indians that swept the nation previous year. The success and participation of Spell Bee can be gauged from the fact that an Indian student won the international competition in 2009. This year the competition gets bigger and better. We have included Cochin to the list of participating cities and look forward to garner maximum contribution from students and parents in continuing the legacy of Spell Bee all over the country. HDFC Standard Life has partnered with the event for the second consecutive year which stands testimony to its phenomenal success last year"

Announcing the association of HDFC Standard Life with India Spells 2010, Mr. Sanjay Tripathy, Executive Vice President and Head, Marketing, HDFC Standard Life said "In today's digital age, where SMS lingo rules most of our written communication, a competition such as Spell Bee encourages students to brush-up their spellings and improve their vocabulary. In fact, a research conducted by HDFC Standard Life in association with IMRS Advisory, among premier schools across 5 cities in India (Bangalore, Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Hyderabad), 98% of teachers said that cultivating good spelling skills are extremely important for students in the early years of growth and development and 96% of the teachers stated that the correct usage of spellings is extremely important in developing a successful career. They reasoned that good spelling skills leads to sound verbal and written communication, builds confidence, improves opportunities and thereby gives them an edge over others. In line with our brand philosophy, we believe in educative and enlightening programmes that help young minds to grow. As a life insurance player, we are committed to support every parent's dream of seeing their child develop his/her potential with our products that offer unique features to take care of the child's immediate and future needs. We are confident that Spell Bee – India Spell 2010 will achieve its objective".
Students can experience the elation and excitement of the competition and hone their spelling skills by watching the excerpts of the event on National Geographic Channel, commenting on the association with the 'HDFC Standard Life Spell Bee-India Spells 2010', Mr. Jay Kumar, National Sales Head, NGC said, "We are extremely happy to be a part of the second edition of Spell Bee.

After the city wise rounds, the winners will participate in the Grand Finale in Mumbai. The winner along with one of the parent of the Grand Finale will be sent by The Times Group to experience the Scripps National Spelling Bee at Washington DC in May 2010.

All you spelling enthusiast get ready for a fun filled spell bee attack in your city. For registrations you can log onto www.natgeotv.co.in/spellbee or sms BEE to 56161.You can also call on 9664854741 / 022 66520306 for registrations.

About Alternate Brand Solutions India Limited
The Intellectual Property Rights team at ABSIL - 360 Degrees has continuously managed to create smart properties with meaningful content, always in tune with present day thoughts. Few of the properties like Teen Diva have showcased the impactful and talented Indian youth leading them to an international platform. Similarly, the Spell Bee property classified in Education helped to engage Indian students to improve their spellings and increase their vocabulary skills, TechLife Awards within the Lifestyle Technology Space category was the country's first ever Gadget Awards that was a celebration of the hottest gadgets and the coolest technologies that changed lives. The team also handles Film fare Awards popularly known as the Oscars of India that highlight the Bollywood Industry and the ever-popular Femina Miss India in the Beauty Pageant segment with phenomenal response year after year. Various properties have been created over the last couple of years, and we continue to provide customized, impactful solutions for new concepts across an assorted range of segments.

About HDFC Standard Life
HDFC Standard Life, one of India's leading private life insurance companies, offers a range of individual and group insurance solutions. It is a joint venture between Housing Development Finance Corporation Limited (HDFC), India's leading housing finance institution and Standard Life plc, the leading provider of financial services in the United Kingdom. HDFC Standard Life's Product portfolio comprises solutions, which meet various customer needs such as Protection, Pension, Savings, Investment, and Health. Customers have the added advantage of customizing the Plans, by adding optional benefits called riders, at a nominal price. The company currently has 25 retail and 6 group products in its portfolio, along with five optional rider benefits catering to the savings, investment, protection and retirement needs of customers