Bhubaneswar: TEDxXIMB 2017 organized at Xavier Institute of Management, Xavier University Bhubaneswar on 15 January 2017 enthralled students via inspirational ideas. The theme for this year’s event was ‘Scripting the Change’ and the speakers at the TEDx brought it forth excellently.
This fourth edition of TEDxXIMB had speakers from diverse walks of life such as Mr Anwesh Kumar Sahoo, Mr Gay World India 2016 and prominent LGBT rights activist, Mr Anand Ranganathan, researcher at the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Delhi and a contributing Editor at Newslaundry, Mr Raul Villamarin Rodriguez, Criminal Intelligence Officer at Interpol and counter-terrorism specialist, Ms Jagi Mangat Panda, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Ortel Communications Limited, Mr Qaushiq Mukherjee AKA Q, film-maker and rapper, Mr Sarath Davala, sociologist and founder of the India Network for Basic Income and Mr Suvankar Mishra, C EO of eKutir Global.
TED is a non-profit organization devoted to spreading ideas and inspire people via short, powerful talks by the leading thinkers and doers of the day. Independently run TEDx events help share powerful ideas and thoughts in communities around the world.
Mr. Anwesh Kumar Sahoo was the first speaker. His talk, titled ‘Tapping Into your Alice’ was intensely personal. He shared the trials and tribulations he had to endure, growing up in a society that did not know how to deal with individuals who did not conform to established gender stereotypes. He left the audience with an inspirational message: “One individual willing to make a difference can change the world.”
Mr. Anand Ranganathan share his thought on the topic ‘To Kill a Mocking bug: Darwin to the rescue.’ He highlighted his research on the subject of Directed Evolution and Pathogenesis with a special emphasis on combating Multi-Drug Resistant Tuberculosis and Malaria.
Raul V. Rodriguez explained on the topic, ‘Deception in Management Education.’ He had an interesting and freewheeling session with the audience, elaborating about how deception was an inescapable part of the modern, transaction-driven society that we are live in. He mentioned, “Business people want to have it both ways: they want to lie to a customer and then act as if they haven’t done it.”
Speaking on the topic Breaking the glass ceiling: Women entrepreneurs in India, Ms Jagi Mangat Panda, she spoke of the deeply ingrained gender stereotypes in society that are extremely difficult to overcome.
The next speaker was the film-maker and rapper, QaushiqMukhejee. Better known as ‘Q’, he spoke on ‘Digital Disruption in Underground Cinema.’ He gave the audience a sense of how technological disruptions like the advent of the Worldwide Web, Digital Photography and more recently, Digital Distribution have brought about far-reaching changes in the ways in which films are conceptualized, made and distributed.
Mr Sarath Davala spoke on ‘Universal Basic Income.’ He said, “We bring in huge bureaucracies because of the conditionalities: this leads to corruption.” He shared his observations from a pilot study of basic income conducted in a district of Madhya Pradesh as proof that the concept of Basic Income has huge potential and can create far-reaching benefits for these communities.
The last speaker for the evening was Mr Suvankar Mishra, who shared his perspectives ‘Human digital platform to aid sustainable development of smallholder communities’. With 90% of cultivators worldwide being small land-holders, it is important that they be empowered by new and innovative technological and organizational solutions. He concluded by saying, “A data revolution can bring about sustainable, equitable development of small landholding farmers who grow most of our food.”
