Month: March 2022

Creation, Innovation & Inclusion

IIT Kharagpur organizes Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) 2022

Entrepreneurship Cell under the aegis of Rajendra Mishra School of Engineering Entrepreneurship of IIT Kharagpur, conducted their annual flagship event the Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) 2022, on the theme ‘Innovation for Inclusion’ from 10th to 13th March 2022 in an online mode. The event was inaugurated by Prof. Virendra Kumar Tewari, Hon’ble Director, IIT Kharagpur. Shri Nitin Gadkari, Hon’ble Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Government of India graced the event with his presence. Mr. Beerud Sheth, Co-Founder and CEO, Gupshup, and Mr. Saugata Gupta, Managing Director & CEO, Marico Ltd were the guest speakers at the opening ceremony.

The summit had a plethora of events over the four days, including competitions in various segments with titles like GES Pitchers, Intern Carnival, Co-Founder’s meet, PhonePe’s PayHack, Business Game, Gaming Night and HP Innov-Ethos. There were many workshops including ‘Evolution of FinTech in India’ conducted by Mr. Srijon Biswas, Head of Engineering, PhonePe and ‘Technology and Innovation: How it’s important for entrepreneurship’ by Mr. Vipul Mittal, Transformation Leader at Ernst and Young Global Delivery Services. GES had a global outreach with international panellists from countries like USA, Brazil, Germany, Australia and Finland besides others. With over 100 renowned investors, 300+ entrepreneurs and over 1500 college students from across the country as well as faculty members from numerous universities, the level of engagement was remarkably high. Various startups participated in the Intern Carnival, where they offered internship positions in diverse fields from Business Development to Computer Vision, to students across the country. Co-Founder’s Meet is an event where budding entrepreneurs meet like-minded people to discuss their ideas and explore possibilities of partnering in a venture like ‘Connecting the Dots,’ is an initiative at GES that helps in idea cross-pollination among the Entrepreneurship Cells of the colleges and universities across the country for symbiotic prosperity. Another large-scale participation is witnessed in the Business Model Competition, ‘Empresario’ organised annually by the ECell and the finale is merged in GES, where the current edition saw the participation of more than 1500 teams from which after mentoring and quality screening 28 teams could be vying for the top honours as finalists.

Shri Nitin Gadkari, Hon’ble Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Government of India, appreciated the contribution of the Entrepreneurship Cell of IIT Kharagpur fostering innovation and entrepreneurship among the youth of India with the support to set up business, training, incubation, patents and funding congratulating the Institute on incubating over 200 startups. Upholding the theme ‘Innovation for Inclusion’, he said that, “This would be the approach of India along with the knowledge and application of Science, Technology, Research and Entrepreneurship which will be benefitting India to become Aatmanirbhar”. He delineated the importance of such summits in promoting the culture of entrepreneurship and understand as to how small idea grows into big businesses. He talked about the emerging sectors, working towards sustainability, such as electric vehicles, battery swapping, green hydrogen and ammonia and solar panels alongside windmills. He urged that the priorities of the stakeholders need to be aligned with the country’s commitment to net-zero carbon emission in the future and called upon entrepreneurs to work with innovative ideas for generating energy from waste material making India more self-reliant and clean besides exploring opportunities for import substitution and export.

Prof. Virendra Kumar Tewari, Director, IIT Kharagpur, stressed on the importance of innovation and entrepreneurship reflecting the enormous possibilities in solving the problems and socio-economic issues involving healthcare, water and environment.

Mr. Beerud Sheth, Co-Founder and CEO, Gupshup, remarked that “Entrepreneurship is about can-do attitude, it is not about IQ, rather it is about EQ, to hone the ability to sell and be creative in approach.” Mr. Saugata Gupta, Managing Director & CEO, Marico Ltd explained why innovation is important for startups.

Mr. Muhammad Yunus, Hon’ble Noble Laureate, remarked that, “Humans are born to be entrepreneurs and not just run after degrees and jobs. We need to be job creators rather than job seekers”. The Nobel laureate emphasised on the importance of social entrepreneurship as a better alternative to charities as the money used in charities can be used only once.

GES 2022 gained the support of many corporate sponsors and was presented by Reliance Industries Limited, co-sponsored by PhonePe and powered by Acer. The entire event was conducted under the able guidance of Prof. Pranab Kumar Dan, Associate Professor, Rajendra Mishra School of Engineering Entrepreneurship

Content Writer:- Poulami Mondal, Digital & Creative Media Executive (Creative Writer) Email: poulami.mondal@iitkgp.ac.in, media@iitkgp.ac.in, Ph. No.: +91-3222-282007

“Here’s to strong women, may we know them, may we be them, may we raise them” – Women’s Day 2022

“She is imperfect but she tries
She is messy but she is kind
She is good but sometimes she lies
She is hard on herself but won’t ask for help
She is alone in her thoughts and
Mixed in a beautiful recipe of life”

It was a three day gala celebration for the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IIT KGP) on the International Women’s Day under the aegis of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav from 6th to 8th March 2022. This year the theme was #breakthebias to show solidarity with gender parity, a world free of gender bias, stereotypes and discrimination, a world which is diverse, equitable and inclusive of both men and women setting the standards for being individuals where differences are valued and celebrated together as a team.

IIT Kharagpur flagged off the celebration on 6th March 2022 with the opening ceremony involving fun and games for everyone and indulged in activities like Sack Race, Musical Chair, Tic Tac Toe, Blind Fold etc. All the participants did a photoshoot and posed together to form this year’s theme #breakthebias.

A panel discussion was held on 7th March 2022 on “Women’s Adolescent Health”. Dr. Chaitali Dutta Ray, an eminent gynaecologist, Professor & Head, Dept. of Gynaecology & Obstetrics, Raigunj Government Medical College & Hospital, was the Chief Guest for the occasion.  The discussion was moderated by Dr. Parmeshwar Satpathy, Assistant Professor, Dr. B. C. Roy Multispecialty Medical Research Centre, IIT Kharagpur and Dr. Tanisha Das, a Ph.D student of IIT Kharagpur. The other panel members, Professor Manas K Mandal, an eminent Neuropsychologist and Distinguished Visiting Professor at IIT Kharagpur and Dr. Sumana Samanta, Assistant Professor, Dr. B. C. Roy Multispecialty Medical Research Centre, IIT Kharagpur discussed about stress, depression, public health, problem of adolescent anaemia and the long term hazards of this common health problem for women. Ms. Devaki Nandana Varalakshmi Vardhineedi, Vice President of Technology Students Gymkhana (TSG) spoke about her experiences as the First Lady Vice President of TSG IIT KGP.

 

The Department of Geology & Geophysics of IIT Kharagpur have also felicitated their Women Professor Colleagues, Prof Sanghamitra Ray, Prof Chandrani Singh and Prof Sudha Agrahari. In-depth discussions and motivational speech by the participants towards the empowerment of women in Earth Sciences was also conducted on the occasion of International Women’s Day 2022 as part of the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav.

The closing ceremony commenced on 8th March 2022 with on-the-spot competition that included Rangoli, Alpana and Face Painting for all the campus residents, spreading the message #breakthebias. Later in the evening, the event began with lighting up the lamp followed by addresses from Prof V K Tewari, Director, Prof Amit Patra, Deputy Director and Registrar Shri Tamal Nath of IIT Kharagpur on breaking the gender bias. Prof V K Tewari, Director, IIT Kharagpur remarked that, “When you educate a man, you educate only a man but when you educate a women, you educate an entire generation, a society at large”. Ms. Bhanu Kumar, Director (Commercial) of MSTC, India was the Chief Guest of the occasion and addressed the gathering by sharing her experiences of gender inequality and thoughts on women empowerment. The last day of the event concluded with a cultural program by faculties, campus women, children and students comprising of a series of cultural events including songs, dance and drama. The winners of the various activities and events were recognised with a token of appreciation.

An organizing committee was setup comprising of Prof Koel Chowdhury, Chairperson, Prof. Rintu Banerjee, Treasurer, Prof Debjani Chakroborty, Treasurer, Ms Devaki Nandana, Co-Chairperson, Sunita Mishra, Mining Engineering, Prof Gayatri Mukherjee, School of Medical Science & Technology, Prof Debashree Guha Adhya, School of Medical Science & Technology and Ms Priyanka Singh, Sports Officer to undertake the activities of Women’s Day Celebration 2022 in our Institution.

 

Content Writer:- Poulami Mondal, Digital & Creative Media Executive (Creative Writer)

Email: poulami.mondal@iitkgp.ac.in, media@iitkgp.ac.in, Ph. No.: +91-3222-282007