Mangalore boy's Doodle to go live on Google India homepage

BANGALORE, Nov 14 (PTI): A Mangalore-based 14-year-old student's doodle has been chosen from over 1 lakh entries from the country and will go live on Google India homepage on Sunday to mark Children's Day.

Akshay Raj, a class IX student of St Aloysius High School, Mangalore, is the winner for this year's 'Doodle 4 Google' competition, a release issued by the company said.

His doodle 'Technically and Naturally Growing India' was chosen from over 1,08,000 sketches submitted by students from across the country and was selected on the basis of artistic merit, creativity, and expression of the theme.

The winning doodle would go live on the Google India homepage on Sunday. Raj will also receive a Technology Starter Package and Rs 2 lakh technology grant for his school, the release said.

It took 90 days and over 1 lakh entries for the country to get its second 'made in India' doodle. Dennis Hwang - the Master Doodler - and Jennifer Hom - the creative force behind the Google Gandhi doodle - chose the winning doodle for India out of the 41 semi-finalists.

The 'Doodle 4 Google' competition was open to all students from I to X standard. This year participants were challenged to imagine their own version of the Google logo based on the theme 'My Dream for India'.

Besides the national winner, three group winners were also chosen. These were picked through an online voting system where the Indians voted for their favourite doodle from the finalists.

Google 'doodles' are creative logos that appear on some special days, to commemorate scientific and artistic achievements, historic or seasonal events, and other local occasions. For over a decade, Google has been designing innovative logos called 'doodles' for its homepage.