WSDC 2017

Team India broke 4th at WSDC 2017, on 7 out of 8 wins, and made it upto the quarterfinals, where they lost to Singapore on a close 3-2 split. Dhananjay Ashok was ranked the 9th best debater in the Open category, the first time an Indian debater has made the open top 10, and was named the 2nd best ESL speaker. Karthik Tadepalli and Hemanth Chakravarthy were ranked the 7th and 8th best ESL speakers respectively, while Chaitanya Kediyal also made the top 20 ESL speakers.

This was the best performance Team India has ever had at WSDC, with the highest break ever, the first time the team has made the quarterfinal, and the first time it has had a speaker make the open top 10.

Chaitanya Kediyal
Chaitanya Kediyal is pursuing a degree in law at Oxford University. He was among the 40 top speakers in the open category at AWSDC 2016 and the 15^th best ESL speaker at WSDC 2017.

Dhananjay Ashok
Dhananjay is in his 12th grade at The International School, Bangalore, studying Science. He was part of Team India at WSDC 2016, in Stuttgart, Germany, where he was named the 22nd best speaker in the Open category and the 3rd best ESL speaker, and at WSDC 2017, in Bali, Indonesia, where he was named the 9th best speaker in the Open category and the 2nd best ESL speaker.

Hemanth Chakravarthy
Hemanth represented India at WSDC 2015, 2016 and 2017. In 2017, he was ranked the 8^th best ESL speaker in the world.

Karthik Tadepalli
Karthik has just completed his 12th grade at the National Public School, Indiranagar, Bangalore, and is currently at the University of Pennsylvania. He was part of Team India at WSDC 2016, in Stuttgart, Germany, where he was ranked the 14th best ESL speaker, and at WSDC 2017 in Bali, Indonesia, where he was ranked the 7th best ESL speaker in the world.

Tejas Subramaniam
Tejas, the youngest member on the team, is currently in his 10th grade at the PSBB School, K.K. Nagar, Chennai. He was a part of the ISDS team that won the International Competition for Young Debaters, 2017, where he was ranked the best speaker in the Open category, and of Team India at WSDC 2017, in Bali, Indonesia.

Dhruva Bhat

Dhruva represented India at WSDC in 2011, 2012, and 2013. He studied at Harvard University, where he served as the President of the Harvard College Debating Society. Dhruva coached India in 2016, 2017, and 2018. Dhruva is now a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University pursuing his Master’s in Development Studies.

Amrithavarshini Venkatesh

Varshini has been associated with ISDS first as a debater on Team India (in 2008 and 2012) and now as a coach (starting 2014). Varshini graduated from the IIT Madras Humanities programme and consulted on international development efforts with the Dalberg Advisors Mumbai office before joining ISDS in full time capacity as Executive Director

Ronan Patrick

Ronan pursued a degree in History at University College London. He debated for Team England at WSDC 2015, where he finished as the 9th best debater in the Open category, and for Dulwich College, winning the International Competition for Young Debaters, and the Cambridge Schools Debating Championship in 2015. He also co-coached the prestigious Dulwich College in 2017 and 2018. Ronan was the team manager and adjudicator of Team India in 2017.

The team was mentored by Sayeqa Islam.