The election season kicks off with release of the nomination forms, which includes questions regarding the post that the candidate is standing for. From these forms the candidate’s vision for the post is revealed. The last question in the form, which is also the common question for all posts, asks for the candidate’s agenda- based on which the candidate is judged by the other students.

The next stage is the Informal Confrontation which takes place in the café where the candidates get to informally introduce themselves to the students, and where the students can ask the candidates to do anything- sing, act, dance or even do something bizarre. This is followed by the Group Discussion which is also attended by the students so that they can see the candidate’s stand and ideas. Here the discussion revolves around general issues related to the college. The formal confrontation which is the Electoral Debate takes place in the auditorium where the candidates read out their respective agendas. They are then asked questions based on the agendas. Two questions are asked by the current union members and two by the students. After this, comes the final and the most important step of the procedure i.e., voting. Each student is given a slip where they have to tick against the name of the candidate they wish to vote for; these slips are then dropped into the ballot boxes. The voting this year will take place on the 22nd of March i.e tomorrow.

Amidst all of this, the energy levels are higher than ever in Lady Shri Ram College during this entire week. The three days before voting, candidates and their ‘core team’ members are seen taking rounds of the college singing slogans with their dhols, nagadas, daplis, thalis & spoons or even with their whistles (which happens to signify a certain candidate in this year’s elections). From the huge banners with each candidate’s gleaming face on it, to the different kinds of badges with the candidate’s symbols are seen everywhere. Almost every tree in the college has a poster/banner.

On the afternoon of 20th March the college was awakened by the famous Dram Soc members who were campaigning for candidates standing for the election from their society. This was followed by loud campaigning for the other candidates as well. The next day witnessed a flash mob by the members of the Dance Soc to support a candidate standing from their society. On the day of the informal confrontation, the LSR Café saw the maximum crowd it had seen in the entire year. This was the day the students got to see the ‘fun’ side of their candidates.  Some of slogans used in campaigning were- “Sacha Maal, XYZ”, “Humara neta kaisa hoga? XYZ jaisa hoga”, “gali gali mein shor hai, XYZ ka jor hai”. According to many, the elections this year have covered up for everything that was missing in the elections last year.

This year, while some of the candidate’s agendas have promised to install a Dish TV in the Café, others mention something about getting projectors installed in every tut block. This only makes us wonder if the agendas, GD’s hold any importance or are they simply outshone by the campaigning. But on that note, there are also those who have not put in so much effort in making posters or going for heavy campaigning. In such a scenario, do they stand a chance? There are students who have decided to vote for the candidates who are not making such a ‘chaos’ and who do not block their way to the café.

18 candidates are contesting the elections this year, which is something the union is extremely proud of. Candidates standing for the four posts are:- President- Jumi Gogoi, Pragya Lal, Shivika Sharma, Devanjali Dutt, Amudhini VR, Shagun Sinha and Shirin Shibili; Cultural Secretary- Devika Gopi, Abismrita Chakravarty and Anisha Verma; General Secretary- Gayathri Raghunandan, Arunima Nair, Rifka Verma, Suyasha Singh and Pankhuri Aggarwal; Treasurer- Saakshi Mishra, Charu Gupta and Nishtha Manchanda.

The rules and regulations which are to be adhered to strictly, include the following: Room to room campaigning in the hostel, SMS/Internet campaigning, campaigning after college hours is discouraged; Distribution of money and gifts or any kind of favour is strictly prohibited; No expensive campaigning is allowed; In case a candidate is unopposed, she will still have to do the electoral debate, although there will be no voting, etc. In a few words of advice to the future Students’ Union of LSR, the current President of the union, Kritika Bhardwaj says,“A lot of times things get stressful, but the key is to stay calm and focus on what has to be done”.

Just In:
LSR Students’ Union Election Results:

President- Jumi Gogoi
Cultural Secretary- Abismrita Chakravarty
General Secretary- Gayatri Raghunandan
Treasurer- Charu Gupta

Additi Seth
additis@dubeat.com 

The video which went viral within minutes of its upload has sent shock waves across the globe and convinced us that Kony is probably the worst man to walk on earth after Hitler. Now, such a well-intentioned campaign reaching out to millions of people across the world has to have its own Pandora’s box of controversies. Without going over the details again (as that’s what has been occupying top spot in Facebook status content these days), let’s just say the Invisible Children Organisation has been made out to be a cretin belonging to the lowest rung in scum hierarchy.

What, however the African politics aficionados have been crying themselves hoarse over is not the lacunae in the ICO’s noble intentions but the fact that a highly idealistic view with complete disregard to the complexity of the issue, has been propagated. It won’t be wrong to say that a simplistic and misrepresented perspective has been put forth designed to tug at the heart strings of the highly impetuous population living on the Internet. Now obviously, whether he wanted it or not, Joseph Kony has gained more fame than he probably ever thought possible. In this, the Invisible Children Organisation has achieved one of its objectives – awareness.

Thus, the point to be debated upon is whether such aggressive campaigning and targeted marketing will ultimately culminate in Kony’s capture. Most have probably guessed by now that buying the Kony2012 action kit and wearing the much-sought-after bracelet, is probably not part of the Top 5 Best First Steps list of the Ugandan/American military who are actually going to be doing the job. Neither are they interested in the magnitude of Kony posters across the world or the number of people who think how particularly heinous Kony’s crimes are. Ultimately, that really doesn’t matter.

If focus were to be shifted to say Osama Bin Laden, who needs no introduction whatsoever and definitely not an Osama2011 – Make Osama Famous Campaign, ultimately it was political acumen and international government support that nipped the man (not quite in the bud though). Obviously there was no doubt in anyone’s mind as to the atrocities and barbarity of the aforementioned man, however wearing a bracelet would have done as much in bringing him to justice as probably dancing naked in a snowstorm might have.

What really is the crux of the issue is the fact that widespread screening of documentaries and posters do nothing more than increase awareness. Yes, that is important but for any movement to be successful (specially in a politically volatile issue), it requires a leader willing to look at both sides of the spectrum, someone willing to negotiate and someone who is not blinded with insurmountable hatred. If we are to look at a campaign much closer home i.e. The Lokpal Bill movement, which took the country by storm and which is probably the reason why supporting the Congress is equivalent to committing a crime; it worked albeit partially because political negotiations were involved and the public was kept abreast of the developments.

This ,however, isn’t what is happening in the Kony2012 campaign. We have no idea whatsoever as to what is going on in the zone. In fact, it is quite perplexing to note that Joseph Kony and his Lord’s Resistance Army hasn’t been active in Uganda since 2005! Whether the ICO’s intentions are suspicious or not is purely speculation at this moment but what can definitely be said for sure is that it’s an entirely different ball game out there which cannot be solved without the intervention of wide ranging parties. It really isn’t quite as simple as “trying to stop the Star Wars people”.

Urvi Gupta
urvig@dubeat.com

Like every year, students in the University hostels and PGs, most outstation students chose not to head back home and rather celebrated the festival with their college friends. For them, it was just another day to let go of their inhibitions and celebrate their hearts out.  Hostels and PGs accommodations around the campus saw the festival being celebrated in a grand fashion. Though Holi may be traditional for some and wild for others, they are fun most of all. Manish from Hindu tells us, “Holi is a very customary affair. There are pichkaris, water balloons and gulal. This year, the college provided us with some color but most students got their own colors as well. Only thing is that no outsiders were allowed.” Across the road at the St. Stephens, it was all about ‘the trench’. Subhashish Bhadra says, “The trench was a 3 meters in diameter pond of muddy water. We were dragged from our rooms to it early morning; everything else was just a blur. The colors were probably arranged by the Union but nobody really paid any attention to anything but the trench. It’s a tradition. We ended the day by visiting the professors on campus.”

Down south, at LSR’s hostel, it’s a traditional cum wild holi. “We gathered in front of the hostel lawns with baltis of water, colour and balloons. We put gulal tikkas on our wardens and the bhaiyas at the mess. But it was pakka rang Holi for friends! People who wanted bhang and things went out because they’re forbidden in the college campus”, says Suhani Gupta.

Ankita Dhanda
ankitad@dubeat.com

None of us are older than 20 or perhaps 21, but we’re always on the go, running from one college to another, sitting and sometimes yawning through events, our notepads are almost a part of our bodies now (trust me, after a point if you’re sitting and staring at your bare palms you feel incomplete), our brains are constantly registering details of events around campus, we’re always making phone calls, taking quotes, listening to people, gathering opinions with smiles plastered to our faces, ALL so that we can give YOU the gossip or information or news you need about YOUR OWN college. Or University. Or city. Or maybe even country .

Plus our reports go online 15 minutes after an event takes place. Literally 15 minutes. It’s not even a joke. We don’t delay things because we believe in professionalism. And I’ll have to admit, because we don’t want to mess with our editors.

A DUBster watches movies and reads books so that he/she can review it for you , so that you can decide whether you want to watch it or not. And we don’t just sigh over our work, put our heads down on our desks and think, “Aakhir Google kis din kaamaayega.” NO plagiarism means absolutely NO plagiarism. Not even on a lazy day, not even on a sick day, not even on your BIRTHDAY. We don’t plagiarize because we don’t want to be the ones you can point a finger at and say “Dude, copy karliya!!” You literally have to bid Google and Wikipedia adieu if you want to write for DUB. Google is THE SIN.

So the title of my article actually refers to some reputed newspapers like Deccan Herald, that take something off from a link that probably Google provides them, and simply upload it on their web page 10 days later. They probably don’t realize that a young writer has perhaps worked hard or bunked a class to write that article they so easily published under their banner, replacing the original writer’s name by some “Nagen Singh”. Nagen Singh ends up reporting an event he didn’t cover or perhaps hadn’t even heard of.

Knock knock.

Who’s there?

Your conscience.

For these commercialized, big-banner big-time papers, Google is perhaps the Saviour, not the Sin. Too lazy to be physically present and actually cover an event? Or suddenly realized that you were supposed to cover an event that’s already over? Simple. Just Google it, find the link to a student newspaper and copy it. Bacche hi tohhain, kya bigaad lenge?

Which brings us to debate whether or not Google is spoiling the credibility of the media and information age we live in. Google is informative and useful, but often “gives away” too much, leading to plagiarism and paraphrasing. The news that reaches you through these popular papers may not be first-hand or real. It’s like an old t-shirt that has been handed down.

But DUB updates are 100% authentic, original and on-the-spot. Working with DUB is actually a learning experience. They’re not just making you work for them, they’re preparing you for working for a mainstream newspaper or magazine in future. These newspapers that a DUBster aspires to work for, perhaps don’t care about plagiarism as much as we do. They can just rip something off our page, and paste it on theirs.

We’re not starting an ad war like the one that TOI and Hindu started in the year 2008. We’re not going to make punch lines or slogans that attack other papers. We’re just a friendly, proactive student newspaper trying to create a voice for DU students.

After all the hard work, all the effort that is put into bringing YOU updates, we come home and see, that our VERY OWN article/report is published on some other web site, under someone else’s name. And it doesn’t really make you think, “Wow, I’m so awesome that people are copying me now!” It’s the exact opposite. It’s unfair, immoral and incorrect.

As an FOB-fresh off the boat-DUBster, all I can say is I’m glad our editors are rigid when it comes to certain principles. It makes us all the more proud.

Tazmeen Amna Siddiqi
tazmeens@dubeat.com

“I think that I shall never see, a poem as lovely as a tree” – words of Joyce Kilmer, and I do not know why I chose that line to start this article, the same way I had no idea why I opted for Political Science Honours in Shi Venkateswara College (when I clearly preferred History as a subject). Hopefully, at the end of this article, you will find a sense of conclusion and closure if you’re reading something so utterly random, as is pursuing a degree from Delhi University…

Alright, if you’re seeing this as a first year student, you have had a long enough experience in your respective colleges to figure out whether or not, you like being a Delhi University student. Some of your friends in fact, have made the bold decision to change courses and drop out a year, and some of your friends even went “bugger this, I’m going to SOAS”, (or some other college outside of India depending on how much money their parents were willing to shell out). Oh, and you’re probably cursing the new semester system, because it has ensured that your seniors are now as useful as a water balloon in a gun fight.

If you’re a student in second year, I hope you guys were actively involved in college activities. However, if you’re still around you must be socially sorted and figured out that college is not like school and that is because it has such a large variety of people. You would have also realised that you have “moved on” in many ways and are barely meeting your old school friends because college might have fulfilled your social requirements for the time being. Unlike your school, where people were from the same “class”, DU has a bit of everyone, and if you’re from one the “higher class” schools such as Vasant Valley or Shri Ram, you had a bit of a hard time adjusting socially because you’re not used to being around people whose monthly family income matches the cost of the technology you’re carrying in your pocket, it is a bit of a culture shock to all… but if you are able to recover from it and take in your strive, it is an amazing place to grow up and turn into an adult. My biggest education from Delhi University was from people, not my books.

As for the students of third year, some of you have it all planned out, you’ve attained an idea of how much you want to score in the next exam in order to be eligible for post-graduation college of choice, or you’re going to find yourself some work and then eventually apply for a post grad, either or, you feel you have it all figured out, but I must warn you, life will throw the odd monkey wrench at you and if it does affect your future, its better you take it rolling instead of flat out on the floor with sand in your face. Think of what you wanted in the 11th grade, and you will realise, the future is not what it used to be.

However, there are people who are severely intimidated by the driven kind and are thinking “oh man, she seems to have it all figured out, and I have no bloody idea what to do”. My advice to you is as simple as it comes – Take it one step at a time, and give your immediate future (in terms of career) your best shot. Experiment a bit, work here and there and figure out what sort of a scene you want to be in, because once you complete that post-graduation (if you take it up at all), your career path is pretty much set… and the probable reason you have not decided yet is because, like me, you’re fickle minded and easily bored and entertained at the same time… remember a career in a certain field will be longer than marriage, and you certainly don’t want someone or something that bores you.

By now you might have forgotten that this article started with a random line of poetry, so after reminding you of that, let me put in a slightly random ending… Delhi University, is an amazing place to create a network, and has tonnes of resources as your disposal (contrary to what Stephanians think). If you use them strategically and NOT strive for mediocrity, you’ll be fine, and even if you do, the amazing thing about life is you’ll still be fine. Believe it and then, live it.

Raghav Mandava is a Comedian, Producer, Bar-tending enthusiast, Fool, and a Couch Potato. He is also the owner of Cheese Monkey Mafia. You can follow him at www.facebook.com/mandava.raghav and @raghavmandava on Twitter.

With an ever increasing energy demand, managing oil imports has become the first priority for India. Around 13% of these imports come from Iran. Under such circumstances, one can forgive India for wishing that Iran had not courted the wrath of India’s long time ally, Israel and the almighty West. But that is exactly what Iran has done by refusing to cut back on its ambition of becoming a nuclear capable state.

Recent events have only made matters worse. Iran has publicly expressed delight on the progress of its nuclear programs. If that wasn’t enough, a terror attack on an Israeli diplomat’s wife in India has conveniently been linked to Iran by the ever so enterprising Israel. All this has left India ropewalking an increasingly thinning rope with no safety net what so ever.

Up until now India has successfully managed to continue importing Iranian oil despite the increasing number of sanctions against the same. According to the latest Indo-Iranian deal, Iran is willing to accept 45% of the payment for oil in rupees. This will further strengthen trade ties between the two countries. Iran will probably use the acquired rupees on Indian goods.

USA and Europe have already placed an embargo on Iranian oil and NATO is continually encouraging other allies to follow suit. This, along with India’s professed commitment to the Non Proliferation Treaty, has politically obligated India to support NATO in its endeavours. Economically and practically, India cannot do without Iranian oil.

India has been at its non committal best on the issue and this for once seems to be the right policy to follow. It will be fool hardy now to cut off trade relations with Iran and equally suicidal to extend support to its operations. It therefore seems best to play the waiting game and while we are at it, we better send out the oil scouts. And ask them to hurry up.

Urvi Gupta
urvig@dubeat.com

Switch. A 19-year-old clad in a khadi kurta and jeans along with his teammates, is performing a street play on ‘Whistle Blowers’ in a slum in north Delhi. Lavanya, another 19-year-old girl, from a well-off family, is teaching kids of sweepers and peons near Nehru Place metro station, while another group of 19 to 20 year olds is preparing for a flash mob in an east Delhi mall.

All these cases have one thing in common. People of the college-going age are taking up causes, and working to eradicate them.

Today’s youth has long been tagged as the ‘indifferent lot’, obsessed with technology, clothes, flashy cars, money minded to the extent that they’d pursue their higher education from the country’s top colleges and then go serve in the foreign land for the sake of heavy pay packages. This might be true for a percentage of the present generation, but the majority tells a different story. Street theatre, environmental activism, teaching underprivileged kids along with pursuing their own studies are only a few examples of the various ways by which students of the varsity are showing their patriotism. But if you go talk to them, they’d call it not flashy patriotism but would rather describe it as their duty.

Street theatre in itself is aimed at bringing to the fore a social cause and talking about it to the public. This year again, the Delhi University theatre circuit has seen a number of commendable street plays based on often-ignored issues like promotion of secularism, whistleblowing, and the problems faced by the people of north-east India.

SGTB Khalsa College’s play, ‘Dharma’ is its students’ initiative to promote secularism in the country. The play talks about the existence of unseen lines which prevent people from marrying a person of another religion, or worse, even visiting an area dominated by people of a religion whom they abhor. Intolerance towards other religions is an abomination that is prevalent especially amongst the people who call themselves educated. The play does not promote atheism or target any particular religious group, but is rather aimed at promotion of secularism amongst the people. “Religion is not a way to reach God but rather a way to live life. Religion dominates our life and through ‘Dharma’ we wish to promote religious tolerance amongst the people”, says Kunal Arora, a member of Ankur, the dramatics society of SGTB Khalsa College.

The members of Verve, the dramatics society of Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies, have made a street play on ‘Tu maar de seeti’ which literally translates into ‘blow the whistle’. The play revolves around the concept of whistleblowing, which is the act of telling on all sorts of wrongdoers. Abraham Lincoln had once said, “To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards out of men.” Whistleblowing, rightly justifies this dictum, instead of being a passive observer, one should consider this active approach and raise his voice against all forms of oppression/injustice/wrongdoings. Another thing that instantly made these young men and women fall in love with whistleblowing as their theme is a song called ‘Bilqis’ by Rabbi Shergill. The song talks about the tragic fate of a few, then relatively unknown people, who were ruthlessly murdered for talking about the right things. A refrain from the same song goes, ‘Jinhe naaz hai Hind par wo kahan the?’ (Where were those who took pride in India?) All of the team members could easily and very strongly relate to this refrain and this has been an inspiration for them ever since.

Another striking feature of this theme is its timing and its relevance. It comes at a time when the whole nation is riding on an Anti-Corruption, patriotic sentiment. This theme tries to make people realise that they are equipped and they can actually make a difference on an individual level. “The idea behind performing this play was never for garnering acclaim or winning competitions, it was more of an endeavour by a few college students to actually set things in motion and harness the power of street theatre to bring about change. As soon as we could, we took this act to the streets between ordinary people and tried to share our vision with them. This play has already been performed at Hauz Khas Village, Chandrawal Village and Green Park area in New Delhi. This is also our tribute to those martyrs who were killed for making the right noises”, says Rohit Benival, a member of Verve, the dramatics society of SSCBS.

“Our biggest motivation is a sense of patriotism and consequently, the biggest reward is somebody actually absorbing the essence of our act. In our act, we use whistles as a symbol for raising our voices against all things wrong. The simple message that we try to communicate is: whenever you see something wrong happening, don’t stay quiet, blow the whistle! After one of our performances in Chandrawal village, a kid, somewhere around ten- eleven years of age, came running towards one of our actors and said, “Can you give me your whistle? Our canteen-wala (School caterer) charges extra for bad food. I will blow the whistle””, he adds.

North-east India has always been considered a region unsafe to visit, while the problems of the people living there have always been ignored. “Our play, ‘Ugte Suraj ka Sapna’ talks about how the people of the north-eastern part of the country are still fighting for their existence in the “mainland India”, as they say. It depicts the discrimination of the people of that specific region. It also discusses the loopholes in the constitution regarding that area. It shows the disparities between the rights of northeast people and the rest of Indians. The region has faced decades of ignorance from the media. None of the major movements have been covered by the media. It has failed to capture the 11 year long hunger strike/struggle of Irom Sharmilla against the law. The centre point of the play is that the common man of north-east India gets sandwiched between the pressure of insurgence and the implications of AFSPA and they still have hope for a new morning,” says Ayushi Aggarwal, a member of Manchatantra, the dramatics society of SGGSCC. “It has been years and they haven’t seen the dawn. It’s high time for the sun to rise in the north-eastern part of the country. Our slogan is ‘Save Democracy, Repeal AFSPA’”, she signs off.

Lavanya Julaniya, a second year student of Miranda House has an interesting and inspiring story to tell. Lavanya attended the Global Youth Summit in London in January, 2009.

Global Changemakers was founded in 2007 when six young activists, brought together by the British Council, were invited to lend the ‘voice of youth’ to the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum. Since then, the network has grown to a community of over 730 Changemakers in 121 countries world-wide. The mission of the programme is to empower youth to catalyse positive social change and to bring together social entrepreneurs. It has expanded since its inception, and is now built on three pillars: Learning, Doing and Advocacy.

Amaani, meaning aspirations in Arabic was envisioned at the Global Youth Summit after seeing so many young people take action in their own communities to bring about a positive change. Amaani is a non-profit teaching initiative for disadvantaged children who do not otherwise have the means to obtain quality education. Amaani is supported by the British Council’s Global Changemakers Programme and is collaboration with Leaps and Bounds institute.  Amaani breaks from the conventional class room teaching and classes are conducted with hands on models and experiments. Creative and innovative methods are used in order to facilitate growth in the child’s knowledge and imagination. Fun workshops are conducted from topics ranging from subjects like astronomy, botany, zoology, history, geography, literature; all are part of the curriculum. A nature table, story time and celebrating festivals are integral to the program. It roughly takes about a month’s time to complete one project. At present there are four centres running in New Delhi – evening classes for children of workers, sweepers, peons etc at St. Stephen’s College, SRCC, Hansraj. The fourth centre is outside Nehru Place metro station where such workshops and teaching is organised for children who live in the nearby slums and often beg all day.

Rohit Beniwal, Kunal Arora, Ayushi Aggarwal, and Lavanya Julaniya are only a few names. There are thousands of more young people who in contrast to the general perception about the youth are coming forward to show their love for the country, and spreading out their message through their work.

Shweta Arora
shwetaa@dubeat.com 

I cannot boast of being a great social worker or preach righteousness to anyone; I simply want to acknowledge the fact that there still are some individuals who try to make a difference in the lives of those who start believing they are lost in an abyss of inky darkness.

Sanjivini Society for Mental Health, a purely non-profit organisation, works tirelessly towards the goal of reinstating people’s faith in themselves.

It is a premier organisation that has been providing counselling, a much needed service, absolutely free of cost since 1976. People with problems ranging from stressful life situations to severe mental illness can find solace here.

With two centres in Delhi, at Qutab Institutional Area and Defence Colony, Sanjivini’s volunteer body is the mainstay of the organisation. They are a set of committed individuals who work without remuneration. They come from all walks of life, are stringently selected and intensively trained in order to maintain the quality of counselling.

The work at this noble institution is carried out at two main units- the Crisis Intervention Unit and the Rehabilitation Centre. The Crisis Intervention Unit provides confidential psycho-social counselling for a wide spectrum of emotional distress and mental health problems, ranging from self esteem issues, inter-personal problems, depression, suicidal inclination, substance abuse and minor mental illness. The Rehabilitation Centre is a pioneering programme that works towards the rehabilitation of persons suffering from chronic schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. It is a full-day therapeutic facility.   Over the years, their Community Outreach initiatives have been directed towards the goal of de-stigmatizing counselling by raising awareness.

Sanjivini organises a fundraiser once every two years to ensure that their unerring service to the society can continue. The fundraising event this year was ‘Karna’- a ballet in Mayurbhanj Chau presented by the Shriram Bharatiya Kala Kendra at Kamani Auditorium on 24^th January. Dr. Abid Hussain(former Indian Ambassador to the US) and Mr. Keshav Desiraju(from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare) were present at the occasion.

The ballet was a beautifully executed, heart-wrenching piece on the life of one of the most inspiring characters of the Mahabharata. The performance was very apt for the occasion as it depicted a person who faced hostile circumstances throughout his life and was denied his rightful place in the social milieu. The dancer who played the role of Karna was a delight to watch and won many accolades, much like the ceaseless efforts of Sanjivini.

FinX: The Finance Society of CBS

In a world where pragmatic knowledge is essential, a unique initiative such as that of the Finance society of Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies goes a long way in bridging the gap between the classroom culture and the real world understanding.

Incepted in 2008, FinX is a unique initiative taken by the students of S.S.C.B.S with the intention of providing financial education and testing the financial acumen of students. The society runs a weekly e-paper, the Weekly Pulse, throwing light on major developments in the world of business and finance and giving insights on the effect of policy decisions in the macro economy.

The USP of FinX though is its mock stock trading game – FinWiz. Among the various stock trading simulations doing the rounds in colleges, FinWiz comes closest to matching the bullish and bearish trends of the stock exchange market.

Chirag Jain, student coordinator of FinX says:

“Since we believe in matching up to the standards of our highly intellectual and stimulating participants, each event entails a proper format depicting the vagaries of the stock markets, its dynamic spirit, of being moved by the forces of real demand and supply, its uncertain nature and the thrills of playing with virtual money. Apart from pioneering mock stocks, we organize finance quizzes, bidding wars and online contests.”

FinWiz

This year Fin Wiz is scheduled for January 31 and is being hosted in partnership with the Bombay Stock Exchange. Chirag adds, “BSE is helping in making the event grander. Also their representatives will be explaining the concepts of stock markets that are going to be tested within FinWiz. So, for those who don’t have previous knowledge, BSE will ensure you are quickly equipped with the needful acumen.”

The society also indulges in holding other competitions such as Fight of the Knights, FinQuizzitive, Bulls and Bears and Debt o Blast throughout the calendar to test the skills of finance enthusiasts from Delhi University.

As Rich Dad from Robert Kyosaki’s series would proudly put it, ‘Anyone who is not financially literate cannot see into an investment’.

Shashank Gupta
shashank@dubeat.com