Youth leadership, innovation and entrepreneurship celebrated at Yuva Summit
The 7th Yuva Summit, an international youth conference on leadership, innovation, and entrepreneurship, is hosted by the Leaders Accelerating Development program. The conference began in Hubballi on the 28th of January with over 1,000 attendees, including students, faculty, entrepreneurs, and honoured guests.
LEAD Talk
The first session of the day began with a LEAD Talk, an opportunity for six stand-out youth from the LEAD program to share their stories on stage in front of full auditorium of 1000+. The young leaders inspired the audience of their peers, as well as their elders. Featured leaders were Vedanth B (K.L.S GIT Belgaum), Santosh Biradar (DET), Deepali Bhosle (Smt. A A Patil’s Womens College Chikodi), Sriujan Mara (VREC, Nizamabad), Veeresh Varur (REC Hulkoti), and Prajwal Rao (Mysore University).
Inspiring Sessions with Role Models/ Keynote Speakers:
We were honored to host many esteemed role models, including Magsaysay Awardee Bezwada Wilson, Deshpande Foundation Founders Dr. Gururaj Deshpande and Jaishree Deshpande, Open Water Swimmer Bhakti Sharma, MD of Kirloskar Ferrous Ltd R. V. Gumaste, Deputy Director for Science and Technology at the MIT Energy Initiative Dr. Robert Stoner, Triple Effect Founder Sally Ng, SHAD Coordinator Nichoas Clermont, S Mobility Chairman Dilip Modi, Author Adhitya Iyer, Adviser to the HITACHI Chairman Raju Reddy, Secretary of the IT, Electronics & Communications Department of the Goverment of Telangana Jayesh Ranjan, and Maesh Jadhav, Founder of the Maesh Foundation.
Faculty Panel Session:
The Faculty Panel session began and featured notable faculty members from across the country. Veeranna D. K. (SGBIT Belgavi), Arun Kumar M.V. (Bapuji Polytechnic Davangere), Vasudev Parvati (SDMCET Dharwad). International delegates included Leon Sandler (Executive Director, The Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation at MIT) and Nicholas Clermont (SHAD Youth Engagement Coordinator, Pond Deshpande Center at Queens University) also joined us in this panel discussion. Sally Ng (Founder and CEO, The Triple Effect Inc.) moderated. The panel primarily discussed the ways in which youth innovation and entrepreneurship was administered in the programs they carry out.
Project Showcasing:
Throughout the day at Yuva Summit, 60+ of the top LEAD projects of the year (chosen from over 6,602 projects) were exhibited on the event grounds. Stalls were inaugurated by R. V. Gumaste and Bhakti Sharma. Proud LEADers talked to their peers, entrepreneurs, and faculty about the positive impact they were making in their communities.
Awards Ceremony/ Evening with Legends:
Faculties and youth were acknowledged for their excellence through multiple awards for their outstanding efforts. These awards were presented by renowned legends Dr. Desh Deshpande, Jaishree Deshpande, Raju Reddy, Dilip Modi and Bezwada Wilson The “Best Supporting Faculty” was awarded to V B Grampurohit (Smt. Kumudben Darbar College, Vijayapur), Dr. Veeranna DK (SGBIT Belgavi). KLS Institute of Technology Belgavi was presented with “Best Performing College”. Smt. Kumudben Darbar College, Vijayapur was awarded with “Best Supporting College” and Smt. A A Patil’s Women’s College Chikodi was awarded “Best Supporting & Performing College”. Five youth were awarded “Best LEADer” for their innovating projects. This included Bhimshi B Udachannavar who was recognized for the innovative breaking system designed for bullock carts, Vishwanath Hiremath (Smt. Kumudben Darbar College, Vijayapur) who replaced 18400 taps in Vijayapur City, saving 8 lac liters per week, Nikita Chougala (Smt. A A Patil’s Womens College Chikodi) who built over 100 shelters for cattle in Borgal Village, Manjushree Kamble (Smt. A A Patil’s Womens College Chikodi) who successfully lobbied for a 2.5 lakh drinking water facility for her colony and Gurudatta E (HPPC Govt. First Grade College Challakere) who helped 200 individuals get labour cards. Other awards were presented to Niranjan K (AITM Belgavi) as the “Most Entrepreneurial Idea” for the low cost portable water filter that he designed costing only Rs 25. Lastly, “Most Innovative Solution Technical” was given to Yuvaraj Patil (VSMIT Nipani) who established a multi-talented robot machine for arecanut farming.
Yuva Summit presented, An Evening with Legends, where the five legends demonstrated their knowledge, passion, and inspiration for making a difference. All attendees appreciated being able to listen, and take in the knowledge shared by these change makers. During this session, Mr. Gururaj