Conferences, Guest Lectures, Seminars and Fests! February 2022 spiraled from a quiet beginning to a vivacious pile of events. The BGR campus breathed a sigh of relief welcoming University life back to normal.
Scroll down to read further.
-Director, BGR Campus
" If we had no Winter, the Spring would not be so pleasant" - Anne Bradstreet
Vachana is an annual national conference organised by the postgraduate students of the Department of English and Cultural Studies, BGR. Vachana 2022 centered around the theme Theory and Activism: Can the Twain Meet? The two-day conference was held on 2 and 3 February 2022 in the online mood.
The conference had initiated conversations on intersections between academic spaces and activism through talks from eminent speakers through the keynote address by Prof G N Devy and the panel discussion with Prof Ashwani Kumar and Mr Rahul Sonpimple who spoke on Subaltern Resistance and the State. Interesting observations and critical thoughts were presented through the papers presented across four panels in the course of the two days. The papers addressed myriad themes like Performing Arts, Cultural Artifacts, Marginalised Bodies, and more in the purview of activism.
Ms Jaskiran Gill, Founder CEO of Listening Inn was the resource person for the webinar held on 1 Feb 2022. She elaborately discussed the listening process as active and highly subjective. There is no ‘perfect listener’, but one can try by entering into a conversation with an open mind. Not being judgmental can improve listening stamina.
She also discussed what not to do as a good listener -such as no interruptions, bringing up personal problems, being judgmental, superficial listening and toxic positivity.
Good body language and appropriate non-verbal cues are equally important.
On 2 Feb 2022, the resource person Mr Vishnu Sundarrajan, UX research manager of BSH Home Appliances Group, gave insights about Design Thinking phases to solve real-time problems in Business. The speaker shared his views on Design thinking as a human-centered approach to innovation and it talks about the viability part of the product. It is a holistic approach to problem-solving.
Experiment and understanding the process are important. Need to be very clear and precise in presenting the phases He talked more on Stacey Matrix: The problems are simple need less time and fewer resources. Considering, menstrual hygiene management in India the adoption rate is 8% but whereas in Thailand it's 90%. To solve the complex problem we can imply design thinking. The penetration level of southern regions is 70% but in the Northern region, the levels are low. When we bring the consumer-centric, it leads to innovation and broadens the portfolio.
Some of the credentials that one should take into consideration in the organization are People - the culture of Collaborations, Place Maximum of the organization is creating an inspiring working environment to enhance the transparency; Process - Understanding about Product, technology. He discussed the five phases of Design Thinking. To Understand, Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test.
He gave an idea on how the research has to be done basically on Qualitative or quantitative and put forth some of the tools that are used in the industry to understand the users and observe the users like Question Zero, Charette. A benchmark is set, users, compete with the existing competitor, where all the questions need to be understood.
He gave an idea on how the research has to be done basically on Qualitative or quantitative and he put forth some of the tools that are used in the industry to understand the users and observe the users like Question Zero, Charette. A benchmark is set, users, compete with the existing competitor, where all the questions need to be understood.
The workshop was scheduled for 2:30 pm on Friday, 18 Feb, 2022 with the speaker Anisha Saigal joining on MS Teams. The meeting was screened in classroom 605, where students of 2ENGH were physically present to attend the same.
The workshop began with a formal introduction of the speaker by Dr. Arundhathi. This was followed by a video introducing the publishing house Roli Books, and an hour long presentation (from 2:30–3:30 pm) by Anisha on the Journey of Book Publishing: From Manuscript to Promotions etc. The speaker first introduced herself and how she started her career in the book publishing industry as an intern with Penguin Random House India and Roli Books, followed by a job at Roli Books.
She spoke of the various tasks an intern assists with, such as helping with copy-editing, slushing and creating databases. Anisha then gave an overview of the various roles, departments and hierarchies in Indian publishing houses.
This was followed by a detailed description of various stages of book publishing, namely, (i) ideation, commissioning and contracts; (ii) editing and completing the draft; and (iii) marketing plans, social media strategy, publicity and sales. Anisha then explained the differences between internal projects and client projects, and how they are handled differently. She also spoke about the timeline for book projects and how these vary from book to book. Anisha then highlighted the pros and cons of working in the publishing industry and outlined the steps to begin a career in publishing (securing internships and networking). She guided students on how to apply for internships, and the expectations from a motivation letter. She concluded her presentation by summarising the key points of her presentation, and this was followed by a Q&A session from 3:30–4:30 pm.
Joy Banerjee moderated the Q&A session, reading out the questions shared by the students. The various queries were related to the differences between publishing houses, how to deal with writer’s block, how to manage the differences of opinion between an author and the editorial team, the role of proof readers, and the requirement for entering the design team of a publishing house.
Finding Funding, a shark tank simulation, was organized on 22nd February 2022 for the FIB Cluster exclusively to promote the festing culture in the campus and overcome the hurdles posed by virtual platforms. This was an incentive-driven event that aimed to enhance students’ abstract thinking, creativity, innovative skills.
The event helped promote the festing culture and enabled students to enhance their festing and negotiation skills. The students were able to analyse the current market scenario and understand the effective allocation of resources. They learnt the practical aspect of finance management and profit maximization. It also aimed at enhancing their soft skills and boosted their confidence.
On the occasion of International Mother Language Day on 21 Feb 2022, the new committee of PATA India Christ University Student Chapter conducted its first offline event REBUTTING LINGUISTS debate competition. Through this event, the importance of language and its impact on tourism was highlighted. The topic for the debate was ‘Role of language in shaping tourism’.
The event started with the chairperson’s speech, followed by the emcee introducing the event to the audience. The debate was judged by Dr Suja Mol John and Dr Prerana Srimaal. A devil’s advocate team consisting of professor Gowri Shankar R and 6 students expressed their opinions and questioned the teams. A total of 8 teams with 3 members each had participated from all the departments of the university.
The competition took place in a systematic way with the teams competing as per their slots in the first round. For the second round, the qualifying four teams spoke on the given topic for a few minutes in the form of a group discussion and then were questioned by the devil’s advocate team. Each team was prepared and was able to put forward productive and effective arguments on both sides.
The audience for the event were the students of the tourism department who were quite enthusiastic and supportive.
A guest talk was conducted on ‘the world of marketing and what’s it like to work in an ad agency.’ The guest speaker was Ms Mukhtha M, an alumnus of Christ University who currently works at Schbang and is their Account Lead. Final semester BBAH students specializing in Marketing were invited to join the session in an offline mode in the Bannerghatta campus Mini auditorium.
The speaker started her presentation on how she switched her career field from finance to marketing. She gave a gist of how an ad agency works and how much we learn from an ad agency than working for one brand. The session was filled with some exciting descriptions of the ads and successful campaigns by many brands like Cipla, Fevicol, etc. She also threw some light on how each department in an ad agency work.
The session concluded by her explaining the marketing world and how exactly the ad agencies work and responding to the participant questions.
Dr Bidyut Bhushan Jena, Assistant Professor of CHRIST (Deemed to be University) started by reminiscing his experience in the BGR campus and then addressed the students about philosophy and literature. The critical points of his speech were the realm of language, powers and interpretative ability of literature, the meaning of truth and its separation from the utility in literature. The address was followed by a Q&A session
Post the Q&A, the hosts gave a quick summary of the wide range of events organised by Ellipsis, the English and Cultural Studies Association, as a part of the department fest Carnivalesque 2022.
Following the presentation of the Union Budget in the Parliament on 1st February 2022, Econtago organised an Expert Speakers’ Series on the Union Budget to familiarise the students with the intricacies of the budget and their implications on the economy. The first speaker of the series was Prof. Gayathri K, Centre for Economic Studies and Policy (CESP) from Institute for Social and Economic Change (Bangalore) and she elaborated on the budget allocations for the Union Budget 2022 and brought in interesting viewpoints on the financial goals of the government for this year. The event was a success with the students becoming more aware and gaining a more in-depth understanding of the budget.
She started her presentation by explaining the nature of the Union Budget of 2022. She stated that there were plenty of policies aimed at stimulating GDP in the face of high and growing inflation, as well as continued COVID-19 uncertainty. She also explained that the macroeconomic implications cannot be explained solely by the Union Budget 2022 but by the impacts of previous budgets.
In a year marked by calls from numerous sources for some type of relief in the event of a pandemic, there were astonishingly few changes to the personal income tax structure. Moreover, the impact of the Union Budget on the economy was explained to the students using statistical evidence and the core priorities of the budget were stated by Prof. Gayathri K. In addition to this, she addressed core questions related to the topic.
The lecture by Prof. Emmanuel Thomas from St. Thomas College, University of Calicut. was part of the three-part Expert Speakers’ Series on the Union Budget. The second day of the series, which took place on 10th February 2022, was successful due to the interesting topics covered, comprehensive discussion on the Union Budget, and participants' active participation. The event allowed students to have a greater understanding of the budget and the macroeconomy, and to expand their knowledge on the topic.
With nearly 15 years of experience in teaching and research, Prof. Emmanuel Thomas engaged the audience with his views on the Union Budget. His presentation focused primarily on the implications of the budget on the economy, with a special focus on the macro-economy.
The structure of the presentation included an introduction to India's economy, the state of the economy –comparing the strengths and weaknesses – and the budget uncertainties exacerbated by COVID-19.
The audience was also given the chance to interact with the guest speaker through a Q&A session conducted at the end of the lecture.
The event took place in the Mini Auditorium on 22 February 2022 at 10:30 AM and the guest lecturer for the event Dr. Vinod Vyasulu, Former Vice Dean and Professor of Jindal School of Government and Policy, Sonipat, put forth interesting insights for the students to deliberate and discuss. The Expert Speakers’ Series was an overall success as students gained a deep comprehensive understanding of the government system along with a thorough and critical look at this year's budget.
The lecture began with the speaker bringing out the importance of the budget and why is presented in India. Following this, he highlighted the difference between government accounting and the private sector. He stressed the need for a budget in a federal economy and the role of the constitution in the revenue generated. Furthermore, he explained the division of revenue among states and the different sources of this revenue. The speaker then explained the need for and creation of the goods and services tax within the Indian economy.
He then delved into the discussion on the situation relating to borrowing and expenditure, the trends of borrowing and the possibility of a debt trap arising in the context of the Indian economy. The Q/A session began with a comparison between investment in the public and private sector followed by a question on the shortcomings of the Capex boost. Government accountability and the taxation policy were also discussed and evaluated.
Dr. Yogeshwari felicitated the speaker and the event concluded with a vote of thanks.
The Students’ Panel Discussion event was conducted in the Mini Auditorium on 15th February and was streamed online on Cisco Webex as well. It was conducted with the aim of giving students a holistic view of various pertinent economic issues and highlighting them with reference to the budget. The main highlight of the event was the live Q&A round which allowed students to debate and discuss with each other.
The panel discussion was divided into three separate panels with each panel discussing specific issues related to the budget. The discussion followed a group discussion format. Each panel lasted for a period of 15 minutes following which the Q/A session was opened up for a period of 5 minutes. The rules for the panel discussion were established for the panels.
A thorough highlight of the budget was given with an emphasis on different features of the budget such as agriculture, education, taxes as well the boost in capital expenditure. The first panel had their discussion on the pros and cons of the Capex boost and its success in triggering a virtuous cycle of growth. Each speaker made their opening statement and undertook a comprehensive group discussion bringing out various facets of the issue. This was followed both by questions from the audience as well as the fellow panels.
The second panel undertook a discussion on the topic ‘Will the opening of defense R&D in the private sector be beneficial? The third panel focused on the issue of the 30% tax applied on virtual digital assets and the introduction of the Central Bank Digital Currency. The student budget panel discussion was concluded with a vote of thanks. The event was a success due to the vast variety of issues taken up and a comprehensive discussion and analysis on the budget with participation from numerous students.
Ms Nidhi Behl , Communication Coach and Consultant Facilitator of Vani and Antarang Foundation was the guest speaker of the session.
It started with a discussion on the importance of public speaking and why it is important for students. Persuasion and its importance, the difference between public speaking and presentation skills were discussed with examples and demonstrated by the speaker.
Illustration to business speaking v/s public speaking was discussed. Personality identification through body language and initial conversation during job interviews were briefed. Students shared their experience towards fear of public speaking. Tips to control the fear of public speaking were shared, for example, taking deep breaths, psychological control, deviating focus from physical symptoms of fear to quality of presentation, practising before others and recording the practice to self-rectify mistakes, focusing on inner strength, building up the speech with clarity and organising the main points on the topic. The five Ps of presentation were shared and illustrated
Mr Sameer Raichur, Independent photographer by profession used a presentation format to introduce his project “Sandalwood Hysteria” to the class. His project is related to the theories of spectatorship, fan cultures in cinema and the cinematic public sphere that the class has engaged in. Mr. Raichur’s presentation sought to bridge the gap between theory and practice, while giving the students an example of the kind of word possible in the Digital Media and Technology Project.
A webinar was conducted on the topic ‘Analyzing Sales Stores.’ The guest lecturer was Mr. SureshRamalingam, who joined us through Microsoft Teams for the event. Students specializingin marketing were invited to join the session in an offline mode in the University mini auditorium. Anudeep Maity gave the welcome speech. The plan included giving an insight into store sales and the steps involved in the process. He also threw light on in-store analysis. He also explained the setup in the context of dataanalysis, and why businesses need it, and the importance of data collection in the industry.
The session was entirely hands-on as he had prepared excel files with sample data shared with students so they could solve them simultaneously on their laptops and phones. He used examples to explain how to relate the products and customers along with the trend of the industry. He used famous models such as Arun Ice-creams and Xiaomi, making it easy to connect. He continued to explain the types of analysis- quantitative and qualitative.
He also talked about ‘Mom and Pop business setup’ and how businesses should know where they stand and reasons for data analysis. He also provided insights about pre and post-pandemic scenarios. The session was concluded by him explaining, analyzing, and delivering data and a few questions by the students. Lastly, vote of thanks was delivered by Piyush.
The event was conducted online on the 10th of February 2022. Following an introduction of Stuart Hall by Dr Pradeep Thomas and an address by Director of BGR Campus, Dr Fr Biju K C. The main portion of the event began with the keynote speech by Dr Sucheta Mahajan, Professor of Historical Studies, Jawarharlal Nehru University on the evolution of cultural jingoism through the history of India.
She spoke of how the rise of Hindutva has caused an increase in anti-Muslim and anti-Christian sentiment, associating Muslims with terror and Christians with missionaries who force conversion. Dr Mahajan also mentioned that the jingoistic narrative which dominates discourse in the country from the time of Gandhi’s assassination to now has caused tremondous ride in hate and intolerance. Dr Mahajan also addressed students’ questions related to jingoism and its possible change in the future.
The second portion of the event was a panel discussion presided over by Dr Ajay Kumar and graced by panellists Akash Banerji, Soumya Mukerji and Dr Saroj Giri. The three panellists addressed the topic of hate speech and trolling with regard to the influence of jingoism and how it affects our democracy overall.
Akash Banerjee, Political Satirist, The Desh Bhakt, pointed out that jingoistic views would lose popularity if only people stopped to understand and question statements put forward by the authorities. Soumya Mukerji, Journalist, Senior Editor, STIR World
further stressed this point by highlighting that the meaning of democracy would remain valid only if the youth were urged to question policy makers and take active part in media processes. Dr Saroj Giri, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science
Delhi University, also touched on issues of digital privacy and security, mentioning how spyware can also be used as tools of spreading jingoistic propaganda.
The panellists also answered several questions put forward by students who were enraptured by the topic of discussion. After Dr Ajay thanked the panellists for their participation, the event ended with the Vote of Thanks by the emcees.
EXODUS 2022, an intercollegiate Travel, Tourism, and Hospitality fest was coordinated by Postgraduate students in Tourism Management on 18 and 19 of February, 2022. The occasion, as in every year, was a unique effort to bring students from Travel, Tourism, and Hospitality Management institutions from around the world together on a shared platform where were able to interact, network, grow, and share academic and professional information. This year, Exodus 2022 was held in the HYBRID MODE, with students from all over the country and the world participating.
EXODUS 2022 was inaugurated by the Chief Guest of the event Mr.Ashish Kishore (MD - American Express Global Business Travel), the Head of the Department, Dr.Joby Thomas, Dean Dr.Jyothi Kumar and Faculty Coordinator Dr.Suja Mol John. Travelogue, the Travel and Hospitality Magazine published by the Post Graduate students of Master of Tourism and Travel Management was released during the Inauguration of EXODUS 2022.
The events conducted for Exodus 2022 included Brainstorm - The Best Manager , Travel Solutions - Destination Marketing , Planning Spectrum - Product Launch, Mastermind - The Travel Quiz and She Entrepreneur - The Business Proposal.
Mr.Anish Khadiya (Founder and CEO of Itilite) was the chief guest for the valedictory ceremony who delivered the Keynote address. The Presidential address was delivered by the Director of BGR campus Dr.Fr.Biju KC, and the Head of the Department, Dr.Joby Thomas. In the presence of all the dignitaries, Dr.Nagarjuna, Faculty Coordinator, unveiled the prize winners of EXODUS 2022. E-Certificates were sent to all the winners and E-Certificates (participants) were sent to all the participants. And with that the two day event EXODUS 2022 was declared complete.