Eye of a Tiger - Drishti'12 by Christ University

Around a month back, on 27th January 2012 I got an opportunity to be a part of a wonderful platform at Christ University in Bangalore.

The stage was Drishti'12 -  a platform for the visionaries of tomorrow to envision where India would stand by the year 2020. I was really fortunate that they choose me to be one of the judges among the three. The other two eminent judges were Prof. C.S.Dikshit and Srinivas S.

Bubbling with ideas and imagination, participants challenged their thought processes and presented on following topics:

1. Banking and Finance
2. Economy
3. Science and Technology
4. International Issues
5. Social Issues
6. Environmental Issues

They painted a vivid picture of how India will look like in these areas by year 2020.

To me, the whole exercise was significant since it showed how India is preparing generation next to dream, break out of mold and imagine things which may look like very far, but in reality, catching up - changing fast.

A lot of work had gone by even before participants got on stage and started speaking. They were ably guided by Prof. Ram Mohan and the following process was followed:

1. Six main sectors, namely: Banking and Finance, Economy, Science & Technology, International, Social and Environmental Issues were identified as the topics to concentrate.
2. Several subtopics were identified under each of these sectors so as to cover the diverse aspects of each sector.
3. These subtopics, six each, were assigned to the different mentor groups. (December 2nd, 2012).
4. Each of the mentors in charge of the respective sector, were given an equal number of subtopics to work on. The mentor groups had to select a student to represent the views of the group by January 13th, 2012.
5. How each mentor group came up with the vision for these subtopics was left to them. A subtopic could be dealt by a student individually; or the mentor group itself could be split up into groups, each dealing with one topic.
6. After preparation, the assigned subtopics were discussed and debated upon within the mentor group.
7. Presentations were made on all the assigned subtopics, and one student was selected from each mentor group to represent their views.
8. The selected students were introduced to their team members and a formal briefing on how to proceed with the final presentation was explained (January 15th, 2012). The final presentations could include videos, skits and other creative ideas 

All the selected students under each sector then got together to combine the views of their mentor groups, so as to present a consolidated view of the respective sector in 2020. A consolidated presentation was then prepared for each sector’s vision 2020 and presented before the mentors representing each sector. Suggestions were given by the mentors representing the various sectors to the participants so that the quality of the final presentation would be enhanced.

On January 27th, each sector was allotted a total of 15 minutes on stage.

Participants presented brilliant stuff all around, mining through a lot of data, which was impressive to see.

During the first 12 minutes, they could put forth their vision for the respective sector as creatively as possible - in the form of presentations, videos. Following this, 3 minutes were reserved for Q&A by the judges.

We judges were to judge the teams on the basis of content, presentation, creativity, Q & A and trust me, it was not easy!

It was a close call . Eventually team representing "Environmental Issues" bagged the first prize, with "Social Issues" team, being the runners up.

A note of thanks to the organizing committee, headed by Manimoy Chatterjee They were stupendous! It was infact, one of the finest organized event I have ever attended and been a part of.

Below are the few photos of the event, thanks to Manimoy and the Organizing Committee (again)!