All about "Purvodaya 2012": Annual business conclave of VGSoM, IIT Kharagpur

When you realize what obstacles really are, you soon realize that you are already empowered enough to get to your dreams, you just have to have an enormous amount of will power. People who make things happen, people who actually make their dreams a reality aren't any better than you, and they just learned how to turn the thoughts and hopes they had into a reality.

It all began with a dream, a vision, which few of the brave hearts of VGSoM had for their college. Days of sweat and storm, opposition from a lot of others still couldn’t undermine their souls and thus was born PURVODAYA. The annual management festival of VGSoM, IIT Kharagpur was incepted this year in November but the seeds of the brilliant idea of having a single business conclave combining the best of “Madison Avenue” and “Saamanjasya” the previous events of VGSoM, were sown much before.

Purvodaya meaning the rise of the East, added another feather in VGSoM’s cap, as the motto of Purvodaya goes Believe, Rise, Achieve. We truly believed, we rose to the occasion and yes we achieved, achievement which goes beyond tangible things but which has lot to do in contributing towards building VGSoM, IIT Kharagpur’s brand as a force to reckon with in the years to come.

Purvodaya comprised of the traditional “Kalaakar Vikas” of VGSoM which had artisans coming from neighboring states to portray their works combined with plethora of events in almost all management domains be it marketing, finance, operations, consulting or entrepreneurship.

Purvodaya began on 2^nd November 2012 with a glistening opening ceremony which had attractions like performance of the Western technology music society. The Director of IIT Kharagpur inaugurated the 2 day affair. After that there was a fun event called Fission for the students in which teams had to multiply Rs.100 to as much as they can in a short span of one hour. The coming two days were packed with events which contributed to the learning and development of not just the participants or organizers but also any person who was even remotely associated with the scheme of things.

In the marketing domain events like Leader’s Challenge which focused on diversification strategy of a product, Beddazled effective use of social media for marketing, Quizzard and Support my school ruled the roost. In finance private equity events Lucri Causa, M&A strategy Synergie and Trading events in form of Bull’s eye were there. Other events Srijan – the B-Plan contest, Goldratts’ cage- operations strategy, Vishleshan-IT Strategy, Ghaasphoos – taking grassroot innovations to a newer level, Shaastharth – Parliamentry debating events were hugely popular. We also had plethora of online events like Wired – promoting a social cause, Shutterbugs – photography contest etc.

In addition to the events there were workshops Anugraha-The entrepreneurship talk, Kaaryashaala– The consulting wokshop and Abhisamaya-The Scope talk.

Purvodaya saw participation from renowned B-Schools of the country like IIMs, IITs, IMT, XIMB and the rest, it was a huge success and reinstated VGSoM, IIT Kharagpur’s image as a leading B-School of the country. Apart from the students, faculties and other people involved in the event a big role for the success of Purvodaya was of the sponsors without whom it could never have reached the scale it did, some of our generous sponsors included State Bank of India, SIDBI, Ministry of Textiles, Tata Steel, Steris, Coca Cola NDTV support my school, Perkins, Rang De, CoolAge, FLIP, The Financial Express and Spykar.

Purvodaya provide the ideal training ground for young managers and future business owners to sharpen their knives, hone their skills and test their wits against their peers before heading out for the actual battle. Apart from the high-intensity clash for supremacy, Purvodaya featured wisdom talks and panel discussions featuring the best from the world of business, eminent academicians and bureaucrats.

The virgin rays of Purvodaya will shine over the eastern skies for times to come and will return next year much bigger and better.