Speaker Series
The final day of Confluence 2012 had a Speaker Session was based on the theme of inspiration. The speakers for the day were from different walks of life and each of them had their own inspiring story to tell to the captivated audience.
The first speaker Param Vir Chakra Naib Sudebar Yogendra Singh Yadav recounted the story of his phenomenal courage and bravery in helping India recapture Tiger Hill during the Kargil War of 1999. Mr. Yadav told the management students that they have the power to take the country in any direction and that they should make good use of this opportunity. He encouraged the students to prove to be good citizens of the country and work for its development and to keep the spirit of desh bhakti burning bright in their hearts. The astounding story left many members in the audience with tears in their eyes and culminated in a standing ovation for one of India’s foremost war heroes!
Former Indian Hockey Captain, Viren Rasquinha, who is currently the CEO of the Olympic Gold Quest based his talk on the refrain: ‘'The greatest pleasure in life is to do something that people say you cannot.’ Mr. Rasquinha recounted the story of, when as a young boy, a senior coach had told him that he would not be able to make it to the Indian team, which served as the motivation for him to achieve excellence in the sport. The former captain also gave the future leaders of the country a few management tips based on his sporting story. These were to create the right team environment and give it a 200% everytime. He also added that teamwork is what wins championships and not starts, and that in a team every member has an equally important role to play.
The last speaker for the session was Amish Tripathi, the author of the best-selling Meluha series. Mr. Tripathi talked about the importance of maintaining a balance in life while talking about planning vs. impulsive actions, independence vs. compliance and blindly following your passion vs. rational logic while recounting examples during his experience of penning down his books. He also motivated the students to use their hearts to find out what they are really passionate about while using their heads to find the ultimate destination.
Events
The third day of Confluence saw the culmination of various events from the various spheres of business. The highlights included Bizquizzitive, the flagship business quiz of IIM Ahmedabad that had prize money of INR 1 Lakh. Participants flew down from various parts of the country to just participate in this one particular event.
The day also saw the conclusion of Synergy that brought together technical innovators and mentors who could help commercialise their idea. (Separate Write up attached). Other events included Chakravyuh, a policy sphere event where teams prepared their own budgets for various ministries and handled sticky situations that are encountered by politicians time and again, with élan.
FICCI Conference
The round-table conference organised by Confluence in association with FICCI saw participation from the leading lights of the education space in Gujarat. The conference was held on the topic: "Identifying opportunities for increasing collaboration among the Industry, Educational institutions and Government to increase employability of youth in India".
Ms. Jayanti Ravi (Commissioner, Higher Education, Gujarat Govt), Dr. Akshai Aggarwal (Vice Chancellor, Gujarat Technical University), Prof MR Dixit (Professor - IIM A), Mr. Vishal Mehta (Founder Infibeam) & Mr. Sunil Parekh (Founder Curator, World Economic Forum) were the panellists.
Ms. Jayanti emphasised on the 3Ds that would help India in the future: Demographic Dividend & Diversity. She felt that education should not lead to people trying to fit everything into a known pattern as we move up, but should be about egality and fraternity. Ms Jayanti highlighted the choice based credit system in Gujarat where people could take up 20% of their course credits on generic skills like Spoken English, Life enrichment skills, problem solving skills etc. The third year of this system emphasises the success that the system has seen.
Vishal Mehta, the CEO of Infibeam spoke about a ‘Learn and Earn policy’ where students should be encouraged to take up internships or research during their education. He felt that learning is all about taking accountability oneself, and that the institutes should not be the only factors to be blamed for the lack of employability of the youth and that there were other factors as well including the individual himself.
Dr Akshai Agarwal highlighted the commercialisation of the education system today which has led to its downfall. He reiterated the importance of collaboration between the industry and the academia. Dr Akshai spoke about the benefits of collaboration of institutes with SMEs as it would lead not just to learning but to implementation of ideas as well. He felt that ultimately collaboration should be a two way process and not just a process where the institute tries to send people for internships. He highlighted the positive experiences of this experiment that led to filing of over 100 patents by students, professors and the SMEs.
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