The series of discussions, involving the young and fresh minds on one side and the ripe and experienced on the other, made the programme as lively and informative as possible. The event is perhaps a barometer of the groundswell of knowledge churned out in the educational hub of Tirupati, especially involving the young brains.
This is in a nutshell about TEDxTIRUPATI, the latest version of TEDx conducted last weekend in the temple city of Tirupati. TED is a non-profit organization devoted to spreading novel and progressive ideas by involving thinkers, policymakers and all those who matter in development. Against the general global practice of industries, institutions or organizations coming forward to hold the event, TEDxTIRUPATI turned out to be the first event in the country to be organised by the students, for the students and of the students. Twenty students from various colleges formed a cohesive team to conduct the prestigious event and came out with flying colours.
The participants sat up to listen when Rajagopal Velamoor, formerly Director of Central Plantation Crops Research Institute (CPCRI), Kasaragod (Kerala) and the founder of Society for Hunger Elimination (SHE) gave a presentation on food scarcity and bane of food wastage in the country. M.Padmaja, a gynaecologist spoke on the emerging trends of digitalization in the areas of medical diagnostics, which had thrown up a plethora of opportunities for electronics engineers. Sraval Roy, India representative at the Global Best Awards reintroduced the framework of marketing, social media and brand value. Similarly, social media entrepreneur Shantanu Pandey created a virtual world of IT sphere by putting forth the expectations of the industry from budding entrepreneurs. Nine-year old robotics buff Sahil Saxena wowed the audience by presenting a robot which could walk tracing a line, the applications of which were explained to range from defence to disaster management.
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Budding Tamil actress and classical danseuse K.Supraja set the stage on fire with her impressive dance performance portraying the episode of ‘Mahishasura Mardhini’. Then followed the presentation by Vineet Vincent, who holds a Guinness world record for ‘beat boxing’ with an impressive ensemble numbering 1246 individuals. Sai Prasad, a technology consultant who shot to fame after his participation in Aamir Khan’s ‘Satyameva Jayate’, gave an awakening speech on the physical/mental disabilities and the need to improve infrastructure to help the disabled overcome the ordeal.
The TEDx team formed by the students with the motto ‘Community rising’, received kudos for having shouldered the Herculean tasks of event management, online marketing, public relations, hospitality, finance and logistics. The stage is apparently now set for more such youth-oriented shows to follow.