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The following piece may be upsetting for some readers. Trigger warning: transgression of consent, invasion of privacy, harassment.

Students from Bharati College of Delhi University reported a distressing incident that unfolded on the college premises on the second day of Rendezvous, the fest at IIT Delhi.

On October 6, during the cultural festival of Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, ‘RendezvousX’, students of Bharati College reported an unfortunate incident of an alleged breach of their privacy through unconsented videography on the college premises. Team Elantré, the fashion society of Bharati College, participated in a fashion show competition hosted by IIT Delhi, where several members of the team reported observing a mobile phone seemingly filming them through the window shafts while changing costumes in the campus washrooms. The victims, through a statement on the society’s official social media, claim to have promptly brought this incident to the attention of the student incharges responsible for the event’s organisation, who are alleged to have reacted nonchalantly to their concerns. The incharges reportedly shifted the blame onto the victims, asserting that they should have used the designated green rooms for costume changes instead of the washrooms.

The team, through their official Instagram page, claimed to have received a dismissive reaction from the organizing members.
Source: @elantre on Instagram

In response to the victims’ complaints, the organising members eventually informed them that the issue had been forwarded to the college authorities for further investigation. However, a significant concern arose when it reportedly took approximately 2 hours for the alleged perpetrator to be located, despite the availability of CCTV footage. Nearly 3 hours later, the alleged housekeeping staff was identified, but he claimed to have deleted any evidence from the phone in question, citing panic as the reason. Notably, the victims discovered that the phone in his possession was not the same one they had witnessed.

An individual, who claimed to have accompanied the team as a makeup artist, asserted that the concerned authorities assured them that gates had been locked and jammers were in action, after which they were shown CCTV footage of a person entering the aisle beside the washrooms.

Everyone was in shock, especially some of the girls who had already changed before. The authorities were trying to shush us and kept assuring us that they would catch the culprit.

The Organising Committee of Rendezvous, through their Instagram handle, clarified that immediately after the incident was brought to the attention of the volunteers, the Lecture Hall Complex (the location of the event) was shut down to restrict any movement. Additionally, they stated that security is being tightened to prevent any such unfortunate incidents.

As soon as the perpetrator was identified, he was promptly handed over to the campus security and further to the Jia Sarai police station. We are assisting the victims and their families in further police proceedings as best as we can. We strongly condemn the perpetrator and have zero tolerance for such actions.

– read the team’s statement

The fest organizers issued a statement in solidarity of the victims.
Source : @rendezvous.iitd

While the Rendezvous team page asserted that the competition was called off after consultation with the victim and their team, Team Elantré stated that despite the incident, the college continued their event.

Law-enforcement officials at the IIT-D campus.
Source: @elantre , the official page of the fashion society of Bharati College

The victims have filed an FIR (First Information Report) with the appropriate authorities, seeking a thorough investigation. The members of Team Elantre, along with their parents, protested for nearly 6 hours in the college but claim to have received no further updates from the institution.

Read also: The Invasion of IPCW: A Student’s Account

Featured Image Credits: Policenama

Manvi Goel
[email protected]

Indian Institute of Technology Delhi’s grand annual festival Rendezvous came to an end today.

The third day of Rendezvous 2019, the annual cultural fest of the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IIT-D) was a success, despite starting slow, owing to the venue recovering from the previous night’s rain.

The day saw many competitions conducting their finals and semi-finals. “Swar“, the classical solo singing competition conducted its finals, which had seven participants showcasing their vocal abilities and captivating the audience. The competition, which was organised by the Music Club, was being judged by Pundit Chethan Joshi. The competitors gracefully awed the audience.

Abdul Samad Kahan of Shaheed Bhagath Singh College and Shradha Singh of Hansraj College bagged the first position. Whereas the second and third positions were bagged by Rishab Raghuvanshi of Shaheed Bhagath Singh College, and Chinmaya Iyer of Kirori Mal College respectively.

Simultaneously, the seminar hall saw talented dancers grooving to the beat with individual performances, entertaining the crowd with their dance moves.

The “Pop Battle” which was being judged by Nidhish Pandey had nearly 200 participants, with back-to-back competitions involving various western dance genres under the pop culture.

The dramatics society of IIT-D conducted the prelims for “Natika Vatika”  a multilingual stage theatre competition with prominent judges like Ashok Nagar and Rejneesh Gautham. These plays dealt with various social issues like corruption and the philosophy of life.

Mr and Miss Rendezvous (RDV’19) was filled with spirited faces eager to display their talent and personality. From over 80 entries, 24 participants were shortlisted for Mr and Miss RDV. Out of these 24 entries, 14 were present for the event. The event was judged by the famous Instagram influencers, Stefy Gupta, and Raghav Gogia. The first round consisted of a ramp walk, where the contestants put their best foot forward, literally. The shortlisted candidates from those were then asked to showcase their talent. The six final shortlisted candidates were then asked questions by the judges. The title of Mr RDV was won by Siddhartha Dayani and Miss RDV was won by Tarushi Anand. The judges had asked Dayani what his biggest accomplishment was in the judge question round to which he replied, “My biggest accomplishment has been leaving home and coming to Delhi. I was a mama’s boy at home but now I live on my own which I think is great.”

As young men and women were competing in one of the auditoriums to be the idol of Rendezvous’19, young women were competing in the hall right above to be the Campus Princess. The competition was conducted by the Miss India Organisation and was judged by Viren Barman, Peter England Mr India, 2016 first runner up, and Siddhi Gupta, FBB Colours Femina Miss India, Uttarakhand 2019. From over 180 registrations, there were 62 selected for the competition. The first round was a ramp walk round, where the contestants had to walk in pairs of two. The second round was an introduction round, where the contestants introduced themselves, and the last round for the shortlisted candidates was talent round. The contestants came from different backgrounds, with future lawyers, engineers and even airforce officers present. They were all dressed in black cocktail dresses and looked ready to light up the ramp.

“Allegro” was the Western Group Singing Competition organized by the Music Club of IIT-D. The preliminary round was online where colleges had to send in a video of their performance. From 30 online entries, 12 were shortlisted for the finals on 4th October. The competition saw music societies of various colleges singing beautiful mashups. The competition was judged by Joshua Peters, a western classical music maestro, and Nirupan Sinha, a Delhi based singer-songwriter and composer. After a tough musical battle, Echo, the Western Music Society of Jesus and Mary college stood first. Euphony, the Western Music Society of Gargi College and the Western Music Society of LSR were the first and second runners up, respectively.

Day three also saw the reputed IIT Delhi MUN, where students came as delegates and put their diplomacy skills to use.

Apart from these, there were quizzes and games going on all over the campus. From quizzing enthusiasts racking their brains in the Open Numbers Quiz and Conjurors Bout. SPIC MACAY, an organization for the promotion of Indian classical music and culture, also organised Bharatnatyam and Madhubani Painting workshops.

Conjuror Bout, a word game event was also held. The game ignited the literary gene in all to crack questions based on word jumbles, meaning and literary references. Participants received a question paper, and were given 1 hour and 30 minutes to find the answers. They were given rough sheets and stationary to answer the questions.

The event witnessed bibliophiles, literature enthusiasts and poets all throughout the Delhi circuit with their friends, teaming up to answer questions on British Literature, pop culture references, and solve jumbled words through their meaning.

The four-day long IIT Delhi’s fest, Rendezvous ended on a spectacular note on October 5, 2019. A day full of events and performances from every spectrum of life found its way in the four captivating days of the event. 

The final day begun with a plethora of events that happened simultaneously ranging right from the debates to performing arts.

One of the key highlight events of the day, ‘Instrumental Impromptu’ saw participants from all colleges who presented their mesmerising melodies for the audience. The judge of the event was Mr. Vinayak Panth who has been playing the Sitar for the last fifteen years and has performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. He was awarded the CCRT Scholarship by the Government of India and has been a part of various ensembles, sub-collections and Anirudh Varma Collective, amongst others. 

With each performance, the audience was hooked to the beats produced, from various instruments such as the Sarangi, to the drum set. Out of the ten teams that participated in the event that turned out to have an intense competition, Nabeel Khan from Zakir Hussain College won the first prize, Saarah Roy from Daulat Ram College won the second prize, and Saksham and Sarthak from SGTB Khalsa College bagged the third position in the event.

The events began at 9 a.m. Debutant- IITD’s vigorous debating competition- came to an end with Gargi College bagging the first prize, followed by Lady Sri Ram College, and Hansraj College. 

Quizzing whizzes battled out their wits in the India Quiz Competition as well as the General Quiz later in the day, at Rendezvous, which was conducted at the Lecture Hall Complex, with questions varying from Pop Culture-  Music and Entertainment- to History and Science, sensitising the participants as well as the spectators.

Belly Dancing event saw a wide range of cheerful spectators. The performers showcased their impressive dancing skills, making the crowd thrilled with excitement. However, a few spectators raised objections to the lewd nature of the audience’s perspective. “The majority of audience saw the event not as an art form, but rather a way to get cheap thrills. It degrades the participants,” a spectator commented. The general ambience too, was more of a way of objectifying rather than appreciating the dance form. Yet, the participants were energetic and well-rehearsed, and set the stage on fire. The first prize was bagged by Shivani Gupta, and Muskaan Singh bagged the second position.

Duo Dance event witnessed scintillating performances by dance duos from the entire Delhi Dance Circuit.

The biggest highlight of the competition was liberalisation in terms of dance forms and dance types which paved way for diversity and Versatality among dancers.

All performances ranging from Bhangra, Kathak and Bollywood displayed their dance routines.

Members of Spardha, Dance Society of Shaheed Bhagat Singh College came first in tie with Angat. The second position was banged by Athak and Kathak.
The special mention was bagged by Phulkari and Adrita.

Monoact provided the grandeur that IIT Delhi’s Rendezvous needed to come to an end.
The event was filled by artists from all over DCTC i.e. Delhi Collegiate Theatre Circuit.

Monoact which works on the principal of one actor in one scene, stood alone to set the mood for last day of Rendezvous.

The beauty of art is to be an anecdote of emptiness of existence in the society, and the many monoacts performed on pressing issues like lack of choice, lack of sexual preference, domestic violence and patriarchy raised necessary conversations.

Echoes, the Western Solo Singing Competition was also conducted at LHC at 1 p.m.  The event drew a heavy crowd of music lovers. There were 11 participants, all from various colleges and universities. The participants were allowed to either sing solo, or with an accompanist, and the singers were joined by pianists and guitarists. The competition was extremely subjugating in its aura- with the singers entertaining with high notes and vibratos. The first prize was bagged by Dattatreya Biswa, from Deen Dyal Upadhyay College. The second and third position went to Rashim Anand from Daulat Ram College and Janhavi Rajaram from Delhi Technological University respectively.

Another interesting event was FAIL! Initially the idea of this event was conceptualized in Massachusetts Institute of Technology to bring out stories of successful people who have come so far after facing many failures in their life. IIT held a desi edition where celebrities  including Rajat Sharma, Sudhir Chaudhary, Laxmi Agarwal, Sharad Sagar and Captain Raghu Raman addressed the audience with their inspiring life stories.

The event started with a captivating speech by acid attack survivor Laxmi Agarwal. Laxmi suffered a barbaric acid attack at the age of 15 and came out as a warrior. She started a campaign called Save Sale Acid and has never looked back in her life. She talked about her journey post the incident very modestly. Laxmi’s speech was followed by a video conferencing with Sam Pitroda. A telecom engineer by profession, Sam is considered to be the pioneer of hand held computing in India. He talked about his humble family background, friendship with Rajiv Gandhi, contemporary politics in India over other things. While there was a connectivity problem initially because of technical glitches he took a jibe saying what an irony it is to face such technical glitches in an institute like IIT. His brief address was followed by Sudhir Chaudhary who organically took the audience by his presence. He spoke about his life, his profession and the nationalism that he preaches. Acknowledging the humble response that he gets in IIT he said there’s another university in affinity just about 5 kilometres away where he never gets such overwhelming welcome. He implicitly referred to JNU with which he shares a controversial relationship because of the 2016 JNU Sedition case.

Captain Raghu Raman appeared next. His quirk and unconventional ideas about life enthralled the audience. The second journalist in this event’s list was Rajat Sharma,  editor in chief of India TV. Keeping himself apart from other speakers he held a rather interactive session asking questions from the audience for the majority of his speech. Event was concluded with a speech by young and dynamic Sharad Sagar, who heads the Dexterity Global foundation.

The final day was a melange of events right from the ones of competition and team spirit to the ones which fuelled up the people around. 

With an energetic and captivating performance, the famous dance group MJ5 had the crowd shimmying along with the members of the group to the tunes of famous Hindi and English numbers!

In what could be best defined as the perfect conclusion to a four-day relay of events and performances, Amit Trivedi and band had hundreds of people swooning and crooning to the exuberant tunes of his songs.

The unified and synchronised coordination between the band members reflected the positivity of their music. With this unforgettable rendition of a timeless musical experience, Rendezvous 2019 came to a grand end.

Feature Image Credits: Surbhit Rastogi for DU Beat.

Satviki Sanjay 

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Stephen Mathews

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Chhavi Bahmba

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Shreya Juyal

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Amrashree Mishra

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Priyanshu 

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Shivani Dadhwal

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Kartik Chauhan

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The young visionaries from across the nation showcased their innovative endeavours in the field of social entrepreneurship at Enactus National Symposium and Competition 2019.

The Enactus National Symposium and Competition 2019 was held at Indian Institute of Technology Delhi on 13th July. From a number of active Enactus chapters across the country, around 70 colleges applied for the championship out of which 30 colleges had the opportunity to compete and present their projects as contenders for the prestigious Enactus National Cup.
Enactus is a worldwide platform that facilitates an exchange between students and business leaders with an aim to create sustainable leadership for the future. Student groups in colleges are encouraged to work towards problems affecting the communities around them by the means of social entrepreneurship. Enactus opened its Indian chapter in 2008 and has since made headway into 108 institutions across the country. Every year these teams compete for the opportunity to represent India in the Enactus World Championship held in September.
The preliminary round of the competition saw the 30 teams being allotted to five different leagues. Presentations were held simultaneously at five halls. These halls were completely packed throughout as competitors and observing teams were earnestly listening to the presentations. Each team was permitted to present two of their successful projects to the judges; this was quickly followed by a thorough question and answer session.
The range of issues tackled by the participating teams was incredibly impressive. Going well beyond basic research, the teams sought to create projects which benefitted communities who are often overlooked. One such example was Project Oorja undertaken by Hindu College. The idea was to provide a sustainable and affordable source of electricity to street vendors who normally spend atleast INR 25 per day on electricity. The solution was solar powered lamps which was a one-time investment and promised durability for at least a period of five years. A lot of the projects displayed were also aimed at reusing the enormous amounts of waste that the consuming class generates. Projects that used waste tires as a sole for footwear and plastic waste as a filler component in pillows were also presented.

The final round of the competition kicked off with Mr Arun M Kumar, Chairman, Enactus India National Advisory Council and Chairman and CEO, KPMG India, addressing the competitors and emphasising that more and more young people are now thinking about making a difference through entrepreneurial action. Mr Devdip Purkayastha, President and Chief training officer of Enactus India commented on the importance of the Symposium as “a platform to reach out to leaders to maximise the power of an individual.”

The five finalists in each league category were:

League 1- Shri Ram College of Commerce

League 2- Shri Guru Gobind Singh College of Commerce

League 3- Delhi College of Arts and Commerce

League 4- Ramjas College

League 5- IIT Delhi

The judges’ oath was sworn in by Mr Arun Kumar,  post which each team got 12 minutes to present their story of innovation and social change.

Ramjas college presented their Projects Aarogya and TeleSwasthya based on affordable and accessible primary healthcare for the people who cannot afford the heavy expenditure on health facilities. The projects based in Hapur and Naggi district have impacted several beneficiaries by making affordable healthcare available to 70%  of the target population. Today, the project runs 24 health centres in Delhi-NCR and has seen a path-breaking success to empower the lives of many.

The second finalist to present their project was Delhi College of Arts and Commerce who presented their flagship projects Taleem and Sahas. Working for the education of the refugees in Shaheen Bagh and Shram Vihar, project Taleem aimed at solving the primary education crisis through their Taleem Centres. Project Sahas helps breast cancer survivors regain confidence post mastectomy by the use of cotton based breast prosthesis- “Canfe” developed by the team, and underprivileged women. It has developed an online platform where one can purchase mastectomy bras.

Shri Ram College of Commerce presented their projects Viraasat and Asbah. The former project helped the Thateras of Jhandiala Guru to improve the out-dated designs of their local craft and the latter brought in a water revolution in Haryana and Muzzafarnagar through the community filtration plant.

Shri Guru Gobind Singh College of Commerce showcased their e-commerce platform BOOK A PLANT which brought in an innovative idea to make a positive impact on the environment. The other project Kasthi was based on the idea to  convert a “Gaon” into a smart village.

The last finalist to present their project was IIT Delhi, who presented their first project Nirmalaya based on special pots for vermicomposting, which were further categorized as Sugriha and Ruchitra. Their second project Arth presented the idea of redefining rituals by manufacturing cowdung based logs for burning the funeral pyre.

Finally the nervous air entered the hall as the results made their way. Enactus Ramjas and Enactus LSR won the 77-seconds video-making challenge.

After a fierce and edgy competition of entrepreneurial action between the finalists, the results of the top three winners were announced. The home team, Enactus IIT Delhi lifted the prestigious National Champion trophy. The team would represent India for the Enactus World Cup at San Jose, California this September. Enactus Shri Ram College of Commerce and Enactus Ramjas College won the second and third position respectively.  

Feature Image Credits: Gauri Ramachandra for DU Beat.

Sriya Rane 

[email protected]

 

Pragati Thapa

[email protected]

 

The CEO and co-founder of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, visited IIT Delhi on November 12. DU Beat brings to you the highlights.

The wintry morn was warmed up with people in suits and kurtas walking around the stage at the Dogra Hall in the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi on November 12. They were preparing to welcome the masters of one of the greatest technological giants of today. About an hour later at 1 in the noon, Maya Hari from Twitter talked a little about the company and its objectives for the youth and the country. A few minutes later, the man of the hour finally arrived. It was the CEO and co-founder of Twitter, Jack Dorsey.

You would expect a formally dressed techno business executive but the lean lanky bearded middle aged exec that Dorsey is, he was anything but that. If we talk in the language of stereotype, the top shots of such companies usually sport a casual hipster look. Similarly, Dorsey arrived in a black hoodie and dark leather pants sticking on his legs with a classic techno-watch adorning his wrist. He started out a little with talking about himself. One of his opening lines was “I didn’t know that I’ll be an engineer, or even an entrepreneur”. The Twitter CEO saying this words in front of the students of one of the top engineering colleges in India just shows how irony is one fickle queen. Talking about the scope and beauty of social media, he highlights how through twitter, humanity stood first hand witness to thoughts and ideals of the people of Iran, or Egypt, the communities of which were previously unexplored.

He then proceeded to answer questions from several students that were asked to him before on his Twitter handle. These questions brought in light several of Dorsey’s views. On the dominance of Artificial Intelligence over jobs, he jokingly remarked, “I’m an engineer, so, I’ll be the first one who will be affected by it.”

On the education patterns followed in different colleges, he remarked, “I can’t talk about this much since I was a dropout myself.”

Extremely humble for someone whose net worth exceeds a billion dollars, when witnessing an extremely underwhelming response to his questions of change brought about by Twitter, he tacitly responds, “that’s more than I expected.” The question vetting system at such events; something IIT Delhi is notorious for, is always disappointing. None of the really controversial questions were addressed. For example, those pertaining to how twitter tolerates, if not encourages, users spreading hate speech. This is because filtering through the cesspool will cost these organisations users, and that would affect the bottom line; users. Beat up inspirational stories and business decisions are not the ideas warranted by the youth anymore; they want answers to the questions that are hard to answer, and that don’t have a correct answer.

On a serious note, he added how Twitter has added to a sense of political awareness amongst the masses and issues that matter can all be made relevant when used in a relevant manner, like #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter. The event itself had a hashtag called #PowerOf18 emphasising the importance of youth to be aware of their happenings to make a change, especially in a country like India.

Hashtags can create a conversation and this can lead to discussions and change; that’s what the 41-year old entrepreneur feels about the classic hashtag trend characteristic of Twitter. After all, technology and social change both are very needed in 21st century civilisation. So if the channel blending these two succeeds with the current generation, we might just be able to tell our descendants a better tale of life in the future.

 

Shaurya Singh Thapa
[email protected]

Nikita Bhatia
[email protected]

Feature Image Credits: Rishabh Gogoi for DU Beat

Day 1 of Rendezvous, the Annual Cultural fest of IIT Delhi started with the Lifestyle Prelims, the college fashion competition, which saw models strutting in themed ensembles and high heels. Galore, the Fashion Society of Maitreyi College delivered a body positive walk. “We want the heart high and the chest bigger,” they quoted. The society, anxious about probable mishaps such as tripping and slipping during the performance, complained about the dusty stage and careless placement of wires. A slight delay was experienced, owing to the inadequacy of housekeeping staff. Among the 13 participating societies were Delhi University’s Motilal Nehru College, Dyal Singh College, Sri Guru Gobind Singh College of Commerce, College of Vocational Studies and Hindu College. Due to the unavailability of a proper backstage area, inconvenience and congestion was experienced by the heavily costumed participants. The Fashion Society of Manav Rachna University emerged as the winner at Lifestyle, with their fashionable take on Sikhism. 

At the Western Group Dance Prelims, the blaring music surely impaired some auditory senses but the exuberant dance performances were a treat to the eye. The audience burst into hoots as societies dropped groovy moves. Peppy playlists combined with flashy lighting set the mood at the Seminar Hall of IIT Delhi. Outside, the venue, a chaotic queue of youngsters were seen behaving rowdily towards the gatekeepers who were reluctant to allow entry into the already-packed room. Gargi College, Shaheed Bhagat Singh College, Motilal Nehru College, Shivaji College, Hansraj College and IIT Delhi qualified the first round, with Sri Aurobindo College and Daulat Ram College in the waiting list. Gargi College’s Enliven bagged the first position at Kaleidoscope followed by Spardha of Shaheed Bhagat Singh College and Dance Club of IIT Delhi.

The Acapella competition contestants from 14 previously-shortlisted societies were spotted at Allegro, in their monotone society T-shirts. The audience of LHC121 also comprised non-participating societies and acapella admirers, who came to survey the performances. Encore, the Western Music Society of Daulat Ram College performed a medley of five songs. Euphony from Gargi College sent the audience into a state of idyll through their thoroughly rehearsed harmonies. Judges Joshua Peter and Akash Gadamsetty awarded the first position to Jesus and Mary College’s ECHO. Madhurima from Delhi Technological University bagged the second prize, and the third position was shared by Sri Venkateswara College’s Crescendo and Gargi’s Euphony.

The second half of the day commenced with the  inauguration ceremony and the lightning of the lamp by Deputy Director of IIT Delhi, Prof M. Balakrishnan. The ceremony was anchored by Shubendu Sumbli, an IIT Delhi alumnus. It was followed by a short speech by Prof Mausam, VP of BRCA and Prof Rajesh Khanna, Dean of Students Affairs. The inauguration event ended on a musical note with Harmononium performing on stage. It performed a wide range of songs including Chaakar, Fakiri, Jhakar and Gubbare which took the audience’s breath away. It later on, added Marwaari songs to pep up their set.

The Quizzing Club, IIT Delhi organised A fan’s notes, an open sports quiz. Over 50 teams participated in teams of two or three. Eight teams made it to the final round. The quizmaster was Ashish Kumar Rai, an alumnus of IIT Delhi.

The Literary Club of IIT Delhi organised a Slam Poetry Competition, Slam Blues. Twenty six participants were short listed for the event which was adjudged by Aditi Angiras, Indrajit Ghoshal, Saumya Kulshreshtha, and Ravie Solanky. The winners of the event were Seep Agrawal (1st prize, English), Ayushi Dwivedi (2nd prize, English), and Mohit Sethi (1st prize, Hindi). My Jottings, a Creative Writing Competition was also organised by the Literary Club of IIT Delhi. The results for it will be declared on October 15th.

In the prelims for the beatboxing event, a total of 33 teams participated in the prelims consisting of the Showcase Round and the battles. 16 teams proceed to the final round to be conducted on 14th October. The event was adjudged by Mr. Ishaan Nangia, Vice Champion of the first ever Indian Beatbox Championship.  For Battle of the Bands, Acid Pit was declared the winner followed by Mirage and Over Root Third.

The day came to a magnificent close with The Local Train’s performance, which swept the crowd of it’s feet. With songs like Choo Lo, Dil Mere, Aaoge Tum Kabhi the band ensured that the crowd didn’t lose their enthusiasm even for a single minute.

 

 

Day 2 was packed with back-to-back competitions and the events went on till the wee hours.

At Tatva, the Fusion Band Competition, bands presented their creative compositions. The amalgamation of Hindustani Classical and Western tunes combined with an interactive stage presence enthralled the audience. Parameters performed a combination of Hindustani classical music, western rock and rapping through their compostion, ‘Alone’. The competition was adjudged by instrumentalist, engineer, and producer Yatin Srivastava. In his small feedback speech, he pointed out that no society exceeded the time limit and that the bands paid careful attention to music mixing. He also advised the bands to use a better stage presence for livlier performances. IIT Delhi’s MoonShine won the first prize. The second position was bagged by Parameters from the College of Vocational Studies, followed by Amity University’s Metronome who was the second runner-up. As announced by IIT Delhi’s Music Society, Ruhaaniyat, the top three best performances were Sri Venkateswara College’s Where’s My Bag, followed by Five One Nine from Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College, and then Black Beat from Ramjas.

Sprightly vocal percussions left the crowd spellbound at the second round Beat Boxing Competition of IIT Delhi’s Rendezvous’18. The shortlisted 16 participants were adjudged by Ishan Nangia, Sri Venkateswara College student and Vice Champion of the first ever Indian Beatbox Championship. At the LHC Informal Stage area, a large crowd of beatboxing enthusiasts turned up despite changes in the event’s schedule not being properly conveyed. Aranya Banerjee, received a congratulatory hoist for bagging the first position. The winner received a cash prize of Rs. 5000, followed by first runner-up Jatin Pant who received a prize of Rs. 3000.

An exciting array of performances focusing on a multitude of poignant themes ranging from menstrual and religious regression to Indian education policy, displayed all day from the morning to the evening in Mimansa, the street play competition. Out of the 12 finalists, the team of Shaheed Bhagat Singh College, Natuve won the event with the title of overall best performance as College of Vocational Studies and Maharaja Agarsen Institur of Technology followed. The best actress went to Shivaji College whereas the best Actor was a student of Maharaja Agarsen Institute of Technology. Best music was unsurprisingly won by Sri Venketeshwar College; best director was won by Hindu College; best entertaining play went to the hosts, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. The event was sponsored by Theatreleela and adjudged by Varun Sharma, director and owner of Theatreleela.

The highly anticipated Campus Princess pageant was also organised. The event was judged by Viren Barman, Peter England Mr. India 2016. The judge acknowledged the extensive participation of 51 contestants this time when he said, “I was trying to take a picture but I couldn’t fit you all in the frame!”. Last year’s title winners were also conducive in enhancing the morale of the contestants as they shared their own experiences with everyone and narrated their transformation stories after winning the title.

Far from all this, the atmosphere was an absolute envelope of peace at Aagaz, the group Indian Classical Music competition was organised. In the baritone and the soft yet bold lilting of the participating 15 teams from across the state, the audiences were left swooning. Girls took the first two positions as Alahyaa, the Indian Classical Music society of Daulat Ram College and Sangeetika of Kamla Nehru College won the first and second positions respectively, with Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur Khalsa College in the third place.

The Debating Club of IITD hosted the annual edition of its freshers’ parliamentary debate titled Debutant. Constituting five rounds, a plethora of debating themes were up on offer as twelve teams from a variety of colleges, including but not limited to CBS, JMC, Ashoka, and Hindu, finally made it through to the prequarters stage.

The KTM roadshow was another contrast to the peace. With breathtaking stunts defying the laws of gravity, the performers left the audiences’ jaws wide open. As their tires dusted gravel around, a crowd of a hundred students found a thrilling experience becoming real.

Another interesting event of the day, the Comedy Hunt was also organised. Judges Milind Kapoor and Anubhav Singh Bassi, renowned stand-up comedians themselves laughed heartily with a crowd of 500 students cheering for the participants sharing their ridiculous stories. Mohak Arora was named the winner of the event. Most stand-ups focused on deeper social causes, striking just the right balance between conedy and reality.

During the late hours of the evening, Barkha Dutt was in conversation with Prashant Kishor at the Dogra Hall. In the beginning, Prashant Kishor talked extensively about his personal equations with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah. He also spoke about his bond with Rahul Gandhi. He believes that BJP is going to lead in the 2019 elections. He further said that it’s good to have an ideology. However, he asks the youth to not get intoxicated by it. After the session, when asked by one of the audience members whether it’s possible for commoners to enter politics, he says, very frankly that it is very difficult to enter politics if you don’t happen to have a popular surname. Prakash Kishor also very cheekily mentioned that the country could have done without demonetization. At the end of the interview, he mentions that he would have loved to work with LK Advani for he believes that he’s a great campaigner.

Follwing this, the final rounds for Lifestyle and Kaleidoscope were organised, and the day culminated in fervour and renewed energy for the next day’s events.

 

Feature Image Credits: Rishabh Gogoi for DU Beat

 

Ananya Acharya
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Muskan Sethi
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Disha Saxena
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Kartik Chauhan
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Adeel Shams
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In a bid to improve the rankings of the Indian institutes globally, the Human Resource Development Ministry (MHRD), on the 9th of July 2018, announced the name of six universities which have been deemed eligible for the ‘Institute of Eminence’ (IoE) status.
While Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, IIT Delhi and Indian Institute of Science Bangalore are the three public universities selected under this list, Jio Institute by Reliance Foundation, BITS Pilani, and Manipal Academy of Higher Education are the three private universities which have been granted the status of ‘IoE’.

Rationale And Implications

Prakash Ravi Kumar, Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering at IIT Bombay, which features in the list of IoEs, told DU Beat, “The government’s proposal to set up Institutions of Eminence had come after no Indian University had found a place in World University Rankings last year. This proposal was followed by an official notification released by the University Grants Commission (UGC) in September 2017.”
According to the panel, the Empowered Expert Committee (EEC), which had chosen the IoEs, the chosen institutes showed the potential to find a place among top 500 of global rankings. Unlike other institutions, IoEs will get greater autonomy to start new courses, admit foreign students, hire foreign faculty, and collaborate with foreign educational institutions without the need for government approval.
Manoj Kumar, Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering at IIT Delhi told the DU Beat correspondent in a phone call conversation, “One of the implications of our institution being a part of this list is that this tag frees us from many regulations governing higher education and fetches us INR 1,000 crore spread over five years.”

Skepticism

Interestingly, in conversation with students of some of the institutions which were conferred IoE status, there was substantial skepticism regarding the same.
Anand Sinha, a final year student of Production and Industrial Engineering at IIT Delhi told DU Beat, “It is indeed a proud moment for us to be chosen among the Institutes of Eminence by the MHRD. However, how exactly the government wishes to place us among the top 500 institutions of the world is a little questionable.”

Vandana Kaul, Professor at Deshbandhu College of the University of Delhi told DU Beat, “I don’t see how Jio Institute, which does not even appear on the Google Search results, managed to find itself among these deemed institutions.”
Significantly, the list of institutes chosen features the Jio Institute, which is yet to be launched.
Amid questions of the credibility of the list and allegations of favouritism, the University Grants Commission – a panel of which carried out the selections – said the institution made it to the list under the greenfield category for new or proposed institutions.

The UGC clarified that the regulations allowed “greenfield institutions” or new projects to apply and Jio Institute was proposed by Reliance Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Reliance India Limited that is led by the Chairperson of the Reliance Foundation, Nita Ambani.
Despite these clarifications, many critiques have suggested that the Union government’s alleged closeness with the Ambani family influenced the decision. Many others questioned how any university can be judged worse than a non-existent one.

Whether granting the tag of IoE to these institutions will indeed help them secure a place in world rankings is subject to debate, the result of which will only be produced with time.

 

Feature Image Credits: News Nation
Vaibhavi Sharma Pathak
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IIT Delhi’s Cultural Fest, Rendezvous 2016, took off on 21st October,2016. The day opened with the immensely energetic street play acts by the dramatics societies of various college like IIT-Delhi, Hansraj College and Kirori Mal College. The fest also hosted one its most awaited events on Day 1 which was the Campus Princess. Another much anticipated event of the fest, Mr. & Ms. Rendezvous 2016, saw huge participation from across Delhi. The finale round of the event consisted of two stage rounds. The judges then presented the prestigious title of Mr. Rendezvous to Monis Ahmad Khan of Jamia Milia Islamia University, and Ms. Rendezvous to Sanya Devgon.

Blitzkreig- the battle of bands, added to the energy of the day . Bands like High Frequency, Knight Shades, The Forbidden Ritual and many more gave power- packed performances. The first prize was bagged by Knight Shades and the second by the band High Time.

The first pro night of IIT Delhi featured Drowning Pool, an international rock band, that gave their first performance in India, and brought the first day to a close.

The second day kicked off with Tatva, the fusion band competition. The event witnessed participation from various colleges across the country. Infusion band of IIT Delhi stood first, while Chaos Theory of Shiv Nadar University came second. Twelve Strings of Vivekananda Institute of Professional Studies (VIPS) bagged the third position.

Mimansa, the street play competition was held simultaneously, where teams depicted various issues like the caste system and religion wars. The first prize was won by Ankahi – the dramatics society of IIT Delhi, while Anubhuti – the dramatics society of Janki Devi Memorial College (JDMC), and Ijaad –  the dramatics society of PGDAV College (Evening) came second and third, respectively.

The day continued with several informal and competitive events like Voice of Rendezvous, Story Teller, Paintara, Scooter Stunts and Chakravyuh among others. It was followed by the event YouTubers United, where series of events celebrating the rise of these new celebrities took place. Its second series witnessed various pranksters like Rishabh Rai, The Teen Trolls, Love Rudrakash, The TroubleSeekingTeam and The AVRprankTV.

The day concluded with Euphoria Band, energetically performing its various popular numbers.

Day 3 will witness final rounds of various competitive events like Electronica and Western Group Dance. Stay tuned for all the updates!

Feature Image: Iqhlaas Ahmad for DU Beat

Priyal Mahtta and Lovleen Kaur

 

 

 

Every last week of October, IIT Delhi serves excitement and entertainment in the rendezvous it organises for students across India.

The institute hosted it’s annual  cultural fest, Rendezvous 2015 for four days starting from the 16th of October. The fest witnessed explosive  energy from the ends of both, the entertainers and the entertained.
Day 3 (18th October) and Day 4 ( 19th October)  of Rendezvous were planned on the highest unit on the scale of creative and entertaining vigour. Day 3 of Rendezvous saw a massive queue for “Kavi ki Kalpana” with renowned poet, actor, director and singer Piyush Mishra. The patient audience who had waited for hours was sufficiently satiated by the end of the poetry recital and a fun filled discussion with the speaker.

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In addition, formal competitions like Aagaz and Swar for Indian classical Music;  Paintara and Komiketto for art, iconography and cartooning unleashed a Pandora’s box of talent.  A Beauty Pageant, ” Campus Princess ” was also hosted the same day. The day did not see the night so early.

The evening of Day 3 kick started with the much awaited EDM night with Sun Burn at OAT in the Rendezvous Village. A humongous audience  gathered to cheer for the performers of the Western Choreography and the Western Group Dance competitions.

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Day 3 and Day 4 also had a lot going on the informal stage. The informal events such as Bomb SquadBurp MirchiBlind fold drawingand Tashreef Rakhiye Janab saw an entirely unique level of excitement and kept attendees of Rendezvous engaged in a struggle to win cool prizes and goodies.

Day 4 was more of lil’ Humour and lots of music and dance.

The day started musically with Western group and Western Solo music competitions. This was followed by Solo Dance Face offs and the Duo Dance competition. The spacious Dogra hall of IIT D, went out of space for innumerable audience when renowned poet Surendra Sharma effortlessly left the audience into scores of laughter. His speech like that of Piyush Mishra was also topical in it’s concern towards the ills of extremism, Communalism and Oppression of the female body prevalent in India.

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DHOOM, the much awaited star night of IIT D with Shankar Ehsan Loy was scrapped half way, when the crowd outside the venue became uncontrollable. The unfortunate event happened even when the organisers had made every effort to put a bar on the number of people allowed to attend the concert and had cut through the presence of a lot of fans who wanted to be a part of it.

Rendezvous 2015 concluded with an impression which is characteristic of this cultural festival. It raised it’s own bar and set a new horizon of expectations for another rendezvous.

Following are the winner of some of the competitions which were held on 18th and 19th of October:

Kaleidoscope 
Choreography – Dance Competition

1st -Hindu College
2nd-  IIT Delhi

Western Group Dance Competition

1st – Sri Guru Gobind Singh College of Commerce.
2nd – Sri Venkateswara College
3rd-  IIT Delhi

Aagaz:
Indian Group Song

1st- Tie between Lady Shri Ram College and Daulat Ram College
2nd- Gargi College
3rd- Lady Irwin College

Swar :
Hindustani Carnatic Classical Solo

1st- Bineeth Singh
2nd- Divya Sabhyati
Judges for Aagaz and Swar: Mr. Mohit Dhobal and Mr. Pranav Dwivedi

Voice of Rendezvous:

1st- Rambhajan Bedi, Zakir Husain Delhi College
2nd- Harjot Kaur, SGTB Khalsa College
Judge: Mr. Prateek Singh

Debutant 2015
Parliamentary Debate Tournament :

1st- Aanchal, Kanupriya and Raayla , Miranda House
2nd- Saumya, Ananya and Aman , Shri Ram College of Commerce

Campus Princess:

Winner: Bhavia Monga, Amity Noida.

Allegro
Western Group Song

1st Gargi College
2nd Amity School of Engineering

Dance Face Offs, Solo

Winners
Female: Akanksha
Male: Aman

Echoes 
Western Music, Solo.

1st Sidhant Seth
2nd Isha Chakrovarty

Paintara,  Fine Arts :

1st- Rohan Kapoor, Ayushi Goel and Kirti Singal from Sri Venkateswara College

2nd- Chaithanya Natakala, Kiran Babu and Goutham Othayoth ,School of Planning and Architecture

3rd- Ishani Tagra, Dhruvika Bisht and Sanjana Dhiman ,Gargi College
Judge: Renuka Khera

Komiketto, Fine Arts :

1st- Shivangi Rao and Mahima Bisht ,Maitreyi College
2nd- Sushant Sharma and Bhawika ,YMCA, Faridabad
3rd- Harshit Kumar , Dyal Singh College
Judge: Argha Kamal Ganguly

Street Photography:

1st- Shekhar Mann from Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies
2nd- Shravan Kumar from IIT, Guwahati
Judge: Mr. Rohit Vehra.

Tooba Towfiq

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Inputs from Shagun Marwah.

Picture Credits: Sahil Siddiqui and Tejaswa Gupta for DU Beat

Enactus has been a pioneer in changing the lives of students and communities all around the world. But what makes it so special?

Last month, Enactus conducted its national competition which saw a participation from 60+ college teams from across the country. While all of the teams had projects which made a difference for a different community, teams from Hans Raj College, Ramjas College, and IIT-Delhi stole the show.

Here is a list of projects that were run by the winning teams, each including their impact and sustainability figures:

  1. Enactus Hansraj had two major projects- Project Boond and Project Mithaas

Hansraj

Project Boond

Venture – Providing unprivileged masses an access to clean drinking water through production of low cost water purifiers that run without electricity.

Producers – Intellectually challenged individuals from NGO Samvedna.

People directly impacted – 6

People indirectly impacted – 440

Project Mithaas

Venture – The project aims at encouraging the farmers to take up the highly profitable business of beekeeping.

Producers – Farmers

Direct Impact – 6 farmers

Indirect Impact – 95 farmers

 

  1. Enactus Ramjas portrayed 3 major projects and came first runners up –

Ramjas

Project Transcreations

Venture – Aims at financial, educational and societal inclusiveness benefits of members of the Transgender community by teaching arts of jewellery making, soft skills and many more

Producers – Transgenders

People directly impacted – 22
People indirectly impacted – 2580

Project Aradhaga

Venture – Project Aradhaga aims at the social and financial upliftment of the unemployed women of the slums of Jahangirpuri and JJ Basti areas of Delhi by teaching them accessory making.

Producers – Unemployed Women

People directly impacted – 15
People indirectly impacted – 1550

They have another project named Project Amlaan which has just started.

 

  1. Enactus IIT Delhi, the winners of the competition presented 2 projects –

IIT D

Project Exelsior India

Venture – Teaching kabadiwaalas the art of managing money, eliminating middlemen, providing them with microfinance opportunities and finally making recycled notebooks with the material picked up by kabadiwaalas. Under the project, they also created cardboard tables with solar lamps for students.

Producers – Kabadiwaalas
People directly impacted – 31,514
People indirectly impacted – 1,57,570

Project Aanch

Venture – Creating a stove which was eco friendly and trained women to produce them. It provides women highly cost-effective alternatives for cooking and reduces pollution.

Producers – Rural women
People directly impacted – 2312

People indirectly impacted – 1,35,000

Feature Image Credits: htcampus.com

Ishaan Sengupta

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