IIM-Indore's annual management festival kicks off

Updated on: Friday, December 03, 2010

IIM Indore's biggest event on the campus - Ahvan'10, its annual management festival gpt underway with zest. The festival which took its first steps last year, with the theme of 'Imagining India', has moved ahead to take a bigger stride, in its endeavor to 'Inspire to Act Act to Inspire'.

Mr. Chandrashekhar Ghosh, founder of micro finance institution "Bandhan" inaugurated Ahvan-2010 in presence of IIM-Indore Director N. Ravichandran and other senior faculty members.

In his inaugural speech, Prof. N. Ravichandran highlighted that the theme of the festival - "Act to Inspire, Inspire to Act" was contextually relevant in today's situation, where India needs leaders at multiple levels who can inspire the masses to act. Later, Mr. Ghosh delivered a lecture on his experiences with "Bandhan" as part of the Envision speaker series.

Mr. Ghosh started Bandhan in 2001, the focus being to alleviate poverty and empower women. To achieve this end Mr. Ghosh developed an extremely low cost model to reach poor women along with constantly innovating new products and disbursing them through the Self Help Groups (SHG) model.

Coming from a modest background and starting "Bandhan" in spite of financial hardships and family obligations, Mr. Ghosh's phenomenal contribution to the society truly embodies the spirit of "Act to Inspire, Inspire to Act".

This was followed by a talk by Prof. Anil Gupta of IIM-Ahmedabad under Envision - a series of guest lectures by luminaries. Prof. Anil K. Gupta is a Padma Shri recipient, the founder of the Honey Bee Network and coordinator of Shristi. He teaches many courses at IIM-A including a course titled "Globalizing a Resurgent India through Innovative Transformation" (GRIT) with Bharat Ratna Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam.

According to Prof. Gupta, "As prosperous we become economically; more concerned we should be towards the poor and needy". He introduced his initiative, Honey Bee Networks, which encourages sharing innovation to match the need of the people who are devoid of the basic amenities they deserve.

He opined that there were thousands of people in this country with a lot of creative ideas which could be harnessed to make life simpler. "Ignite" awards are given to innovative students as a token of appreciation and encouragement. He ended his address by asking everyone to unite Innovation, Investment and Enterprise to make this country a better place to live.

With such a spectacular beginning to Ahvan'10, the coming two days promise to be an enriching experience for all people involved in the festival.

IIM-Indore's annual management festival kicks off

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