TEDx NIT Surathkal

As a part of their technical festival, Engineer 2011, the students of NIT Surathkal put together a fascinating TEDx even on October 30, 2011, in which I had the privilege of speaking.

Some of the highlights:

• Mohandas Pai spoke passionately about the potential of doing good through programmes like Akshaya Patra, one of the biggest nutrition schemes in the world that gives millions of kids a meal at school every day. I can't imagine that anyone would fail to be swayed by the Akshaya Patra story.
• Prasanta Karmakar, who won a bronze medal in swimming at the Commonwealth Games, should be a sporting icon. He has overcome his disability wonderfully well, and is charming and charismatic. May more strength be to him.
• Anoj Viswanathan, co-founder of Milaap, talked about how his organisation makes micro-lending to enterprises possible in a really simple way.
• Bhawna Toor provided the glamour component, but not only that - she added to the appeal for everyone to contribute towards social innovation, and gave some great examples.

NIT Surathkal students did a great job of organising the event. Even more important, they attended in large numbers and participated enthusiastically. I was impressed by their keenness to take their technical knowledge and use it for the social good - NITK, that't the way to go.

For my presentation at TEDx, visit https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B_JQN9Y6fQRsZTgzNWVhMGMtNDY4My00YjA3LTg3ZDAtNGY0ZGQzNGE3ZDhm