JOIN USAs a step to make the youth the agents of change in modern-day society, IDFC Foundation recently held the City-based round of their national campaign called ‘In Our Hands’ at the IFIM B-School campus.
The theme was ‘environment and sustainability’ and the event covered three major issues — carbon footprint, land and water.
The initiative was started to create awareness about the current social, infrastructural and environmental challenges and explore ways to address them.
It featured several inter-collegiate competitions and activities including student journalism, debates, quizzes, essay writing, recycled art, panel discussions, documentary making competitions and photography contests among others.
Hundreds of students from colleges in the City participated in the debate and quiz and expressed their views on the topic given. R Sridhar Rao and Ritu Gopal of Azim Premji University won the debate competition while Vishal Shreshta and Sudip Paudel of Oxford College of Management bagged the prize for the quiz round.
“It was a good experience because we got a chance to learn a lot about the topic that we didn’t know. For example, I wasn’t aware of how many organisations and companies are working to protect the environment. Winning the quiz round was shocking because my partner and I are used to preparing for management quizzes. Researching about environmental sustainability was challenging but interesting,” says Vishal, one of the winners.
Sridhar, who won the debate competition, adds, “It was well organised and the topics chosen were interesting and made you think. There was a lot of spontaneity in the exchange of ideas. The competition was healthy and strong but I feel that it would have been better if more colleges had participated.”
There was also a ‘Green Rangers PUC check up camp’ organised, which saw over 50 vehicles contesting for the most environment-friendly vehicle contest in the City.
The campaign covers more than 300 colleges in 15 cities, including Bangalore, Mumbai, New Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Pune.
The winners of the 15 cities will participate in the national finals later this year and the all-India winner will participate in a panel discussion in the presence of bureaucrats, political and business leaders.