IIM Indore Commemorates Birth Anniversary of Swami Vivekananda with National Youth Conference

IIM Indore Commemorates Birth Anniversary of Swami Vivekananda with National Youth Conference

To commemorate the 146th Birth Anniversary of Swami Vivekananda, IIM Indore organized a National Youth Conference from January 12-14, 2009. The goal was to sensitise the young men and women of India to issues of national concern and

to identify the role that the youth must play to take India forward in its march towards being counted among the best.

Designed as a series of guest lectures and panel discussions, the Conference addressed areas such as Economic Reforms, Micro Finance, Spirituality, Science & Technology, Rural Health & Agriculture. The event received an overwhelming response with over 300 participants, from diverse streams of almost 40 colleges across India. The guest lecturers included eminent personalities such as Mr. Shekhar Gupta, the Editor-in-Chief of Indian Express, Mr. D. R. Karthikeyan, former Director of the CBI, Dr. A. D. Dharma, the Deputy Director at ISRO Bangalore, retired Military Intelligence Officer, Col. R. Hariharan, Mr. K. M. Padmanabhan, the Director of Prerana Educational Media Pvt. Ltd., Mr. M. S. Pillai, Founder-Director of SCMLD and many others. The panel discussions stressed upon issues such as Internal Security, Rebalancing the Gender Ratio, Sustainable Development and Issues in Governance.

Mr. Shekhar Gupta, who delivered the keynote address, spoke about the positives he has seen due to the participation of youth in politics and society. He emphasized the fact that Indian youth has shown their concern about the future rather than to complain about the past, which is a move in the right direction. Mr. K. M. Padmanabhan and many others threw light upon the teachings of Swami Vivekananda and showed the pertinence of his teachings at this crucial demographic juncture for India.

Terrorism and the recent Mumbai attacks were touched upon during various sessions of the conference, especially the seminars on "Safe India: An Action Agenda" and the panel discussion on "Internal Security". The conference also included sessions which addressed the challenges and opportunities across areas such as Micro-electronics and Rural Marketing.

The mainstay of the conference was "Inclusive Growth" and how the youth of India can contribute to it. Dr. Dharma spoke of the importance of Tele-medicine and Tele-education while Dr. Ravi Kannan and Dr. Mohan Rajapurkar, both from the field of Health Care, spoke about the challenges faced in setting-up high quality hospitals in rural India, and the necessity of Medical-Social workers. Another prominent issue discussed during the conference was micro-finance and its contribution to inclusive growth. Speaking on the topic, Mr. Vijay Mahajan, the Chairman and Founder of BASIX India, explained various micro-finance models and different lending methods.

Another interesting segment of the conference was the "Young Leaders Contest". The contestants were asked to form their own youth parties and to deliver their manifestoes and explain how they would address various key issues during the Finale. "The Liberal Youth Party" from MICA, Ahmedabad came out victorious to bag a prize of Rs. 25,000. Other participants awarded during the conference included Abhyanand Shrivastava, Aditya Maheshwari, Abhishek Saxena and Arpit Mangal.

Prof. N. Ravichandran, the Director of IIM Indore, has made it very clear that the National Youth Conference shall be an annual event on campus and a step towards doing things differently as compared to other B-schools.

Concluded.

Contributed by -
Ravi Mehta,
Secretary,
Media & PR Committee,
IIM Indore.

MBA Alumni \| MBA Students \| MBA Aspirants \| MBA Forums