Competitions

July 22- August 1, 2025, India Crowned World Champions at WSDC 2025 in Panama; Sweeps Individual Speaker Awards

May 4, 2025 – The Indian Schools Debating Society (ISDS) achieved another milestone at the International Competition for Young Debaters (ICYD) 2025, winning both the Open Championship Trophy and the ESL Championship Trophy.

From July 18-28, Team India attended the first in-person WSDC held in the last four years in Hanoi, Vietnam. Team India finished at the Championship as Quarterfinalists, bowing out in a close 4-3 split to the Team from Scotland.

Earlier, on the 30th of April 2023, ISDS fielded 4 teams from various schools in India to compete in the ICYD 2023 Finals Day held at Cambridge. Hitishaa Goyal (15) and Akhilesh Palakodeti (14) won the Championship!

The World Schools Debating Championship 2019 was held in Bangkok, Thailand from July 24th to 31st. For the first time in ISDS history, Team India have emerged world champions.

The World Schools Debating Championship 2018 was held at Zagreb, Croatia from July 17th to 27th. For the first time in ISDS history, Team India reached the Semi-Finals and Finals of WSDC, winning the Silver against Team China.

At WSDC 2017 conducted from August 1-11 in Bali, Indonesia, Team India made it to quarterfinals and had a speaker rank in the top 10 speakers of the tournament for the first time ever! The team comprised of Chaitanya Kediyal (The Doon School, Dehradun), Dhananjay Ashok (The International School, Bangalore), Hemanth Chakravarthy (PSBB KK Nagar, Chennai), Karthik Tadepalli (from National Public School, Bangalore) and Tejas Subramaniam (PSBB KK Nagar, Chennai) broke records.

This team went on to win all their in rounds on April 29th, breaking first to the final with a perfect score. They then went on to win the final with gusto – Tejas was adjudged best speaker at the tournament, and Harsith tied at second!

Team ISDS (Indian Schools Debating Society) representing India and comprising of 4 exceptionally talented debating champions, shone brightby winning the 3rd Asia World Schools Debating Championship (AWSDC), held between 6th and 10th July, at Bangkok.