[authoravatars roles=administrator,editor user_link=authorpage order=display_name,asc avatar_size=10]iDiya, the brainchild of ISB’s Net Impact Club, will turn 6 , on the 2nd of August, this year. Launched with the objective of encouraging sustainable innovation and entrepreneurship in the social space, iDiya has evolved year after year, with version 6.0 going international. Over the years, iDiya has seen several ideas incepted and then persevere to be accepted, all for the cause of those who haven’t been as fortunate as me and you. Perseverance remains one of the imperative elements of this endeavor, with both the participants and the organizers (ISB’s Co2015 PGP student community) striving to bring noble thoughts to fruition. In such times when those in need are many and those offering help are few, when the weight of one’s past is a burden too heavy to endure and the onlookers outnumber the helping hands, the need of the hour are not ‘superheroes’ but good men with noble thoughts. And this is exactly the thought that iDiya propagates.
iDiya invites applications from teams, with ongoing ventures, or with ventures that are yet to be implemented, in the social space. Ten teams are then shortlisted, and invited on all on expenses paid trip to ISB for an intensive one week boot camp. During the boot camp the teams are trained under the watchful eyes of the ISB faculty. They are assigned ‘entrepreneur mentors’, who mentor the teams, for a specified period, even after the boot camp. The teams also get to interact with potential investors and venture capitalists. Last year, iDiya saw 450 teams, from all across the country, participate!
This year’s launch event saw the iDiya team invite ‘Sudiksha’ and ‘Sankalptaru’, 2012’s 2nd runner up and 3rd runner up respectively. The iDiya team, comprising of ISB’s class of 2015 PGP students, has left no stones unturned to live up to the expectations generated by the work of their predecessors, from ISB’s previous PGP batches. If getting 2012’s success stories weren’t enough, the iDiya team also roped in a crème de la crème of guest speakers, for the launch event.
Dr Ajoy Kumar – Member of Parliament, ex IPS officer and the real life hero of an urban folklore inspiring several Bollywood movies – to name only a few of the accolade laden feathers on his hat of achievements.
Padma Shri Sanjay Dhande – Member of the Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime minister of India, founder director of PDPM Indian Institute of Information Technology Design and Manufacturing and former director of IIT Kanpur – to name a few of the accomplishments in his repertoire.
The success story of the 4th iDiya winners – Purvi Arora and Sangita Kapadia:
Since Idiya 2012, we have registered our company, Reniscience Education LLP. We are an education consulting firm and our core objective is to enable 21st century teaching and learning through our Professional Development programs, student workshops and school partnerships.“The mentoring and guidance we received at iDiya was really helpful. This year we launched our hallmark, one of a kind research conference called City as Lab. This is a 3 month research project led by students in 5th-8th standards in government schools or in NGOs. It will culminate in a day-long event on Sept 20th at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Museum in Mumbai. We have registered 200 students across Mumbai for the event.
To sum it up, the 6th edition of iDiya has the whole campus buzzing. Right from the selfless efforts of the iDiya team, to the revolutionary ideas of yesteryears’ participants and to the wisdom of the guest speakers, 2 aspects stand out – Perseverance and a penchant to give back to humanity. The journey for the participating teams won’t be easy, but donned with belief that they can architect change, for a greater good, will have them raring to go.
~Rakesh
