Google has announced Doodle 4 Google, its first ever 'doodling' competition in India, to give any school student in India the chance to draw on the most exciting canvas in the world, by creating a doodle for the Google India homepage, to be seen by millions of Google user!

The theme of the competition is "My India", asking students to create a Doodle for Google by giving a pictorial depiction of what India means to them. The winning doodle will be displayed on the home page on 2009. The final winner will also win a laptop for himself/herself, and a technology grant of RS.1 ,00,000 for his/ her school.

Announcing the launch of the Doodle 4 Google competition, Arvind Desikan, Head of Consumer Marketing from Google said, "Creativity, innovation, and a sense offun are at the heart of Google's culture and beliefs. Through Doodle 4 Google, we hope to celebrate the immense creative tah:nt and richness of ideas of students across the country. We are'delighted to be able to give schoo 1 students across India the opportunity to doodle for Google."

Doodles will be judged on artistic merit, creativity and the communication of the "My India" theme. The judging panel will include faculty and students of the National Institute of Design (NlD), Ahmedabad, one oflndia's foremost institutions in the field of design education, as well as renowned cartoonist N. Ponnappa, and young emerging Indian artist Raghava K.K. From among all the entries received, 45 of the best doodles will be chosen by the judges and displayed on the Doodle 4 Google website, where people can vote for their favourite doodle in each of the three age-categories, based on the class in which a participant is studying .. The final winner will be decided by Google's original doodler and webmaster, Dennis Hwang, who created Google's first doodles in 2000, and continues to create them even today.