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Akash Pattanayak

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The oldest parliamentary debate in the country kick-started the debating season this weekend as St. Stephen’s College hosted the 67th edition of the Mukarji Memorial Parliamentary Debate from the 8th to the 11th January 2015. The tournament played host to over 50 teams from institutions such as Delhi University, NUJS and NLU Delhi.

Despite the fact that MukMem has been around for 67 years, the organisers have never been afraid to experiment with the format of the tournament. This edition saw a change in speaker timings from the previous edition. The tournament followed a modified- APDA format and was a closed tournament hence only institutional teams were eligible. The competition progressed through five preliminary rounds that determined the sixteen breaking teams. These sixteen teams then contested the post-break knockout rounds.

Mukarji Memorial Debate has always been incomplete without the famous break-night dinner that this year had some of the best kebabs and biryani from the city. The breaks were announced at the dinner where the team from NLU Delhi finished top of tabs.

The adjudication core comprised of Viraj Parikh (Ex-NLS), AmbarBhushan (Ex-NLUD), JagatSohail (Ex- St. Stephen’s College) and Soutik Banerjee (Ex- St. Stephen’s College). The core this year truly challenged the debating trend of having gender specific round and instead devised a novel method to address the issue of gender inequality. They took upon themselves the challenge to have a gender-based motion in each round so that debaters discussed the issue in a variety of contexts like crime, choice and imperialism.

The finals were contested between the team from the Faculty of Law and the Sri Venkateshwara College. The former team comprising of Akshay Raghupathy and Karandeep Azaan Khanna emerged victorious in a unanimous decision by the seven-member panel. Akash Pattanayak from Shri Ram College of Commerce received the award for Best Adjudicator of the tournament.

The finals motion was – This house believes that India as Mathrubhumi needs to make way for India as Pitribhumi.

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The Finance and Investment Cell of the Shri Ram College of Commerce provided students with a forum to participate in challenging tasks in the field. FINERGY comprised of a series of online competitions that tested participants in multiple ways and also gave them the chance to win great prizes.

The month of October kicked off with the first event of FINERGY – Truth and Dare. This competition involved teams of 2 that competed through multiple rounds. The final round required teams to send their videos on four movie scenarios with a financial twist. The movies were Swades, Robot, The  Wolf of Wall Street and Dhoom 3. The six finalists were – Maverick_St. Xavier’s College, District13_SRCC, Illuminati_SRCC, Bankrupt Engineers, NSIT, Analytiks, SXC, Miracle Workers_SRCC.

The second event was Exquizite’14 which was an online quiz that was extremely closely contested and exposed teams to a series of exhilarating competitions. Aneesh Sharma from DDUC stood first followed by Yash Nyati from St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata and Govinda Bhagada from IIM Indore who were 2nd and 3rd respectively

The final event of FINERGY was Serial Stocker with prizes worth Rs. 15000 at stake. Serial Stocker was an online trading event. Rakesh Verma from Hans Raj College bagged the first position with the highest portfolio value.

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“Finergy, has been put together and produced by a literally self motivated and enduring team. It was a true pleasure incorporating all innovative ideas systematically, to keep participants busy for a month! It was exceedingly bewildering to have witnessed the participation from across India in such exceptional numbers. We look forward to put up more such successful events in the future, as the opportunity, I believe to be provided and grasped is unlimited! Nothing beats drooling over a marvellous working culture within the team”, said Prekshita Patwa President, SRCC FIC.

Students interested in keeping themselves updated about upcoming FIC events along with reading blog posts and articles on related topics can follow www.ficsrcc.wordpress.com.

Image credits: SRCC FIC

Beyond the Cliché is increasingly difficult to write from a general perspective considering the dynamic nature of the subject, so we’ll discuss it in a way that we can break out of the Delhi University stereotypes of the subject. Students today largely get divided into two sets – Masters in Economics and Placements. These placements are generally consulting, finance and business analyst profiles. So let’s delve into a few possible alternatives that stem from the subject Environmental Economics This subject/profession requires individuals to study the impact of our species on the environment in economic terms. They combine the use of economic knowledge like data analysis and mathematical models with environmental science and management.


  Public Policy This can in turn be linked to the idea of political economics as well at some level as it involves the study of public policy on economics and vice versa. It requires individuals to pursue a Masters in Public Policy after pursuing their degree in Economics.
  Healthcare Economics majors abroad often pursue courses that provide them with the necessary skills to apply economic theory in the field of medicine. This involves working on healthcare policy, administration or pharmaceuticals. There exist multiple avenues for this in the government sector, academia as well as in the industry.
  Real Estate and Urban Planning Working in real estate and urban planning isn’t simply the domain of architects. There exist multiple points of entry for economics due to the large number of financial necessities that come into construction and sale of property.
  Business Analytics Apart from the fact that the Harvard Business Review called it the sexiest job of the 21st century, McKinsey Global Institute sighted a growing demand for individuals that can work with large amounts of data. This is a field where it is possible to work with technology giants like Google, finance companies like Vodafone and banks like Capital One.
  These are just some of the possible options that are available to students of Economics. With individuals like Daniel Kahneman and Thomas Piketty constantly pushing the borders, one cannot help but be inspired by the endless potential of the subject. ]]>

The SRCC Debating Society recently hosted its annual Fresher’s Parliamentary Debate – Gambit right before the University’s Mid Semester Break. The tournament played host to 32 of the best fresher teams from across the country.

The debate comprised 5 preliminary rounds followed by post break rounds. The top 8 teams made it to the next round of the competition. Apart from the teams that came to debate, the tournament also featured some of the most illustrious adjudicators from the circuit. The debate followed the 3 on 3 Asian Parliamentary Debating format. The preliminary rounds exposed teams to a variety of themes such as sports, law and even a hypothetical round.

The final was a closely contested debate between St. Stephen’s College and Ramjas College on the motion – “This house believes that fertility treatments have done more good than harm to the feminist movement.”Stephen’s emerged victorious on a 4-1 split in the finals. The competition for the adjudication prizes reached a new high with Shaurya Upadhyay winning the 1st prize with a perfect score of 5. The second best adjudication prize saw a 4-way tie between Arshia Ticku (Hansraj) , Piyush Bhutani (Venky) , Jagat Sohail (DSE) and John Biju (St. Stephen’s College. The finals debate at Gambit is hopefully a sign of things to come in the circuit.

 

 

Shri Ram College of Commerce hosted its Annual Fresher’s Conventional Debate on September 23. The debate aims to provide first years, who are new to the parliamentary debate format, with a chance to debate in a sphere that is familiar and comfortable for them. The competition was invitational and had teams of two from 16 institutions.

The judges were legendary debaters and adjudicators Jagat Sohail (Delhi School of Economics) and Harsh Jain (Faculty of Law). They judged the participants on the basis of manner, matter, and the interjections raised. The motion for the debate was ‘This house will let it be’. The open motion saw multiple interpretations ranging from transsexuals to thought control.

For the top spot, there was a tie between National Law University,Delhi and College of Business Studies. The best speaker prize was awarded to Sukriti from CBS and best interjector went to Arunima from LSR. The event concluded with an address by the judges who gave feedback to the teams on how they could improve their speeches and on public speaking in general. This paves the way for SRCC’s Fresher’s Parliamentary Debate that aims to provide first years with a greater platform.

 

The desire to innovate is something that most of us harbor but Anshul Gupta of SRCC held on to his entrepreneurial pursuit to turn his dream into reality. His enterprise ‘Fabence’ emerged from his desire to create something new coupled with the identification of a problem that he faced and wanted to solve.

Fabence aims to empower users by allowing them to shop for products in extremely innovative and new ways by focusing on the daily problems they face. The approach they followed was simple, they identified problems that consumers faced on a daily basis and solved them using data oriented approach underpinned by technology and innovative designs.

Fabence is India’s first personalized fashion discovery engine and shopping assistant. It has introduced many firsts in the market by focusing on personalization underpinned by data oriented approach – offering unique features such as ‘Shop with friends’ that allows users to search and discover products together on one platform, therefore, replicating the whole offline experience online.

Addressing the basic problem of not having a fashion stylist with you 24/7, Fabence has created an in-built fashion stylist, which is an intelligence-based system that suggests clothing and accessories specifically matched to the shopper’s physical attributes (body type and complexion) depending on the shopper’s search preference. The website further enables the user to suggest a product to a friend via Facebook or email, with just the click of a button.

On being asked about the challenges he faced as a college student with respect to his enterprise, Anshul highlighted, “the biggest challenge was convincing myself to take the plunge of starting up. The next major hurdle was assembling the right team that would stand by through the journey.”

The team at Fabence believes that the website will only grow with time and they plan to stimulate this growth in the near future through a well-planned road-map. Check out the website here, www.fabence.com
Or visit the Facebook Page, here.

Featured Image Source: www.fabence.com

The Delhi University student experience is incomplete without the contribution of student-run college societies. The traditional skills of theatre and dramatics have always found a platform in DU and continue to thrive with a large number of active participants.

However, there seems to be a new wave of societies that are aiming to provide students with the opportunity to apply and acquire different skill sets. Two such societies have kicked off in SRCC this year- Cognizance and Connecting Dreams Foundation- SRCC Chapter.

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Cognizance aims to tap into the growing share of students that wish to venture into the realm of startups. The society has adopted the idea of Conception Creation Conversion. Students more often than not face multiple challenges and aren’t adept at taking the necessary steps to pursue their idea and Cognizance aims to solve that. The activities that they plan to undertake in the coming year include BOOT (build, own, operate and transfer) camps, digital marketing workshops, case study competitions, corporate social responsibility entrepreneurship, management games and stimulation activities. Apart from this they plan to tie up with various start-ups and have seminars by young entrepreneurs.

Another society that has begun operations in SRCC is the Connecting Dreams Foundation (CDF). There exist CDF chapters in LSR and Hans Raj College that have been active for the past year and the extension to SRCC will give students the opportunity to engage in this activity. The objective is the empowerment of youth and women in rural India. The SRCC chapter has adopted the village of Samana (UP) and will be working in collaboration with the local NGO Sundesh. The process shall commence with three-month basic courses in Education, Livelihood, Healthcare, Digital Literacy and English speaking. This shall be followed up by dedicated efforts to fulfill the needs of the people through their USP-Anna Tech Tree model.

Both the societies aim to provide students with the chance to learn beyond the classroom through new and innovative methods. To get further details about the two societies you can check their respective Facebook pages.

SRCC Youth Conference (YC) 2014 brought together a line-up of speakers that truly captured the imagination of the students that attended the event. The first day of YC 2014 saw students turn up in huge numbers to be a part of the event. The speakers came from diverse fields but they all had one thing in common- the ability to connect with the audience and to inspire them. From waste management to music, the speakers provided an insight into their lives that kept the packed SRCC auditorium engaged despite the heat. In contrast to other speaker sessions however, YC managed to strike a balance between intellectual discussion and entertainment.

Nirmal Dave for instance talked about the realization that he could use his technological skills to positively impact the lives of people around him.

“Things that change your life can never be taught.” – Nirmal Dave

“You don’t need a degree in waste management, you need a pair of hands and a heart.” –  Jodi Underhill

Further, Jodi Underhill took students through the journey she undertook in her fight as the CEO of Waste Warriors to combat garbage, while Kartik Satyanarayan explained the fight for the conservation of wildlife like dancing bears and elephants.

Ajay Chaturvedi, the founder of HarVa illustrated the immense potential of rural India and the steps he has taken to tap into it. Dhruv Viswanath rather than simply going ahead and entertaining the crowd chose to take the opportunity to go ahead and explain the driving force behind his music. He mentioned the impact his father and family had on pushing him to pursue what he loved. The speakers received a standing ovation by the audience.

The morning session came to a close with a classic Dhruv Viswanath performance where he showcased his unique style of playing the guitar that is akin to greats like Ben Lapps.

“ Dream! Even if you are an engineer, dream! If you are an investment banker… not so much, but dream!”
“ Nobody wants to be an overnight success, you want to be stuff of legend. “
-Dhruv Viswanath

He performed two of his original compositions and concluded with covers of Get Lucky (Daft Punk) and Somebody that I used to know (Gotye/Walk off the Earth). The audience got a chance to hear real stories of real people who went out there and worked towards a goal they believed in.

In picture: Nirman Dave

Credits: Mehr Gill

The SRCC Youth Conference 2014 commenced with the felicitation of Shri Arun Jaitley. The Union Minister of Finance, Defense and Corporate Affairs launched the conference with the release of balloons and expressed his gratitude to be invited. The speaker session took place in the sports complex that was packed beyond capacity with SRCC faculty, alumni and students. The ceremony started with a welcome address by Shri Ajay S. Shriram, Chairman Governing Body SRCC and President Confederation of Indian Industry. He introduced Mr. Jaitley and expressed his gratitude for the constant support to the governing body. This was followed by the felicitation of Mr. Jaitley by The Principal Mr. P.C. Jain and Mr. Shriram.

Mr. Jaitley’s speech started off with a standing ovation by the entire audience. He kept the audience engaged with an insight into the challenges that India faces today. He was of the belief that there has been a rise in the standard of excellence and that the notion of mediocrity is now rejected by India as a nation. While there has been an increase in marks, he highlighted the lack of structural reforms in the education sector. Moving beyond the realm of education he shed light on the unleashing of India’s energies by virtue of the reforms in 1991. His only regret however was the fact that the process didn’t get initiated a decade earlier. Further he analyzed the role of state intervention on various sectors and how there are trade-offs that need to be carefully understood. To explain this he gave the example of the IT sector that prospered because of the absence of strict licensing and acts. Finally he spoke about the universities abroad serving as the nuclei for policy making in their respective nations. He spoke about the existence of an environment conducive to conflicting ideas that eventually leads to ideation.

The event ended with a soulful rendition of the national anthem. The two days of Youth Conference that follow promise to bring a line up of leaders that will both entertain and inspire the participants. So make sure you don’t miss out on any of the action.

“Mediocrity today is akin to crowding at the bottom. But there is always scope for excellence at the bottom and space at the top.”

“The world today offers an entirely different set of opportunities to us all.”

“Areas where the state has withdrawn and allowed people to determine their own destiny, have seen people show great entrepreneurship and vision.”

Image credits- Khushal

 

The college societies of Delhi University go on to define the college experience for students but the process is truly daunting for freshers. So we’ve put together a few tips that’ll help you get through the process.

Apply for societies as they truly enhance your college experience

“My advice to all the ‘fuchhas’ would be to definitely join a society in college. It’s the only way I survived my first year. There’s a lot to learn. More than your classes would teach you.”
– Savera Hota, Member Sparx, Gargi College

“The problem of choosing between societies however isn’t faced by students of St. Stephen’s College by virtue of Open Societies.
Open societies keep it both interesting and challenging as we try to balance between putting up your best presentation and providing maximum opportunities. Being open doesn’t guarantee all saints as you run the risk of attracting (albeit on a temporary basis) people who don’t care too much about theatre.”
– John Koshy, Secretary, ShakeSoc St. Stephen’s College

Stay updated

Keep track of the schedule being followed by various societies for their respective orientation and selection processes. Most societies are extremely proactive (some take it too far with the spamming) so there isn’t a shortage of sources of information.

Less is not more

There exist two schools of thought here, some seniors believe that you should try out for all the societies and then choose later while others believe that you should shortlist first so you can focus better. The majority prefers the former because selection processes are extremely competitive. So try out for as multiple societies quite like Science students sitting for law, BBA and every other unrelated entrance on the planet as a backup to their Engineering.

Try to get specific information rather than generic information that only leaves you more confused

The crucial tip for you to keep in mind is that all societies are different and are looking for different things. We have put together a few messages from different societies on the audition process.

Dramatics societies in DU are both famous and well infamous for their audition processes with societies like Ibtida gathering crowds from all over North Campus to watch the selections. The advice however is simple – Endure.

“My advice would be that if you’re passionate about any art form dance music or theatre and you are ready to put all your heart into it as a member of the society and as someone who loves their art. Then please go audition without thinking of an outcome. A talent never hides.”
– Lakshvir Singh Saran, Players Member, KMC

College debating is a whole different ball game that requires students to unlearn what they did in school debating.

“Focus on the reasoning of the arguments, rather than on things like quotes and statistics. Try to keep a calm mind and speak as slowly and clearly as possible. Take a few seconds and compose your thoughts before answering the interjections.
– Tanya Sahai, General Secretary, Debating Society Hindu College

In contrast to traditional societies, Enactus exposes students to the idea of social entrepreneurship.

“We are looking for individuals who are not only sensitive to the challenges faced by society today, but also possess the aptitude to apply their understanding of entrepreneurship to improve the lives of communities in need. We need to see the conviction to pursue ideas and the drive to make a difference.”
-Mihika Sharma, Enactus SRCC

Be confident but not overconfident or cocky, as seniors aren’t really looking for a Sheldon Cooper or House like demeanour



Lastly we wish you luck and hope that you find what you’re looking for!