College fests are the flavour of the season with the usual songs, dance and fashion events. But here is JSS Centre for Management Studies which had has its theme PRIDE focusing on rural India. N Niranjan Nikam talks to the distinguished scientist of CSIR-India at JSS-MVP, JSS Technical Institution campus Dr V Prakash whose brainchild this theme was, to know more.
Like any college fest, the atmosphere in the JSS Centre for Management Studies (JSSCMS) in the SJCE campus was no different. There were lot of activities at the two-day Mannovex, an inter-collegiate national-level management festival organised by the students of the centre for MBA and PGDM students.
There were nine teams participating from different parts of the State and also one team from NOIDA had come, said marketing event co-ordinator Nithin D Horadi, a fourth semester student.
Why was there a need to focus on a rural theme? “The pet theme of any corporate in the country now-a-days is CSR-Corporate Social Responsibility. But I always believe that along with CSR what is mostly needed in this country is Concerned Social Responsibility and the two should always go along. Thus the innovation PRIDE-Pioneering rural India towards developed economy-came about,” said the distinguished scientist of CSIR-India at JSS-MVP, JSS Technical Institution campus Dr V Prakash, speaking to City Herald.
The inauguration itself was unique as there was an hut designed and instead of the guests cutting the ribbon to declare the event open, they came out of the hut, thus signifying unleashing the potential of rural India from inside to outside.
Traditional dresses There were also students wearing traditional dresses welcoming the guests. Dr H Sudarshan spoke about rural health, tribal awareness and corruption to the students at the inauguration thus setting the tone for the events to unfold.
Then Dr Prakash unleashed six points on the students to understand what rural India was all about. One of the best examples which even corporates can emulate is the annual ‘Suttur Jatre,’ where there is a full calendar of 365 days, he said.
There are nearly 1.5 lakh people visiting the Jatre and everyone is fed with clockwork precision and this is where sustainability comes in which led to the idea of rupee a day in which the students also participated, said Dr Prakash.
As it rained heavily, the amphitheatre was completely wet and outdoor events in the evening had to be postponed.
Learn from mistakes
“The students have to learn from their mistakes. It is their show all the way and we did not want to interfere. Then they learnt that during this season it is better to hold it an auditorium and thus the cultural events were shifted the next day,” said Dr Prakash.
The events included marketing event, finance event, best manager, B-Quiz, Roadies. For instance the marketing event called ‘service design’ with ‘sanitary’ as the theme was interesting as the students had to do a power point presentation on the theme and how innovative they could get. Some of them did come out with innovative ideas on how to make the rural populace understand the importance of hygiene and the use of toilets.
There was also a business model combined with social cause. Mannovex ended with lots of cultural events and even here the theme was rural India.
