Intaglio Day-0 Report

(8^th January 2009)

The Jokatimes Intaglio Series

 

• Day Zero
• Day One
• Day Two
• Day Three

Inauguration ceremony

Intaglio 2009 – the annual international B-School meet of IIM Calcutta was inaugurated today. The inauguration ceremony found a soulful in start in the performance by the students’ musical band of IIM Calcutta JBS BaroC. Dedicating their performance to the Mumbai massacres, they held the audience spellbound for the next 20 minutes. In what can be called an expert rendition by an amateur band, their music contained an engrossing fusion of the modern with the classical.

The fest was inaugurated in a solemn lamp lighting ceremony by Mr. Ajay Sinha, MD (Rural Marketing), Aditya Birla Group and Mr. Sudeep Grover along with Mr. Saibal Chattopadhyay, Dean, IIM Calcutta and Mrs. Leena Chatterjee, Faculty Advisor, Intaglio 2009. Speaking on this occasion Mr. Chattopadhyay underlined the importance of Intaglio 2009 for the students in the current scenario more than ever. He said that Intaglio provided a host of opportunities to the student community to interact with the business leaders and keep abreast with the changing times and the changing ways of business. Acknowledging the fact that Intaglio carved the niche people from top B-schools he stressed upon the strategic importance of community interaction in the backdrop of the current economic meltdown. He invited the corporate and B-school participants from across geographies to use Intaglio as a platform for sharing ideas and collaborating to solve real life problems.

Mr. Ajay Sinha pointed out that the current global economic meltdown was a “passing phase” in the context of Indian economy which was to stay for a short-term. Speaking on the theme for Intaglio 2009, “Cultivating leadership, redefining horizons”, he related traits of leadership to the spiritual and human virtues. Five spiritual virtues viz. love, peace, truth and non-violence were central to human growth, he said and stressed that a leader ought to be guided by them. The cross-cultural and individual expression of these five values would bring good to all, he felt. Leaders must be intuitive and interactive and they needed to shift from the age-old dictum of accommodation to empowerment. Addressing the importance of a balance between task and relationship orientation, he said that for a leader sensitivity was the key.

Ritesh Kamath, the overall coordinator for Intaglio 2009, welcomed the audience on behalf of IIM Calcutta and Team Intaglio. “Over the course of the next three days, you’d be served a cocktail of events, lectures, shows and entertainment. With 175 corporate houses as our partners, 5000 students from 120 colleges as participants in various events and some of the best leaders from different walks of life as our speakers and advisories, it is no coincidence that Intaglio 2009 has Cultivating leadership, redefining horizons as its underlying theme.”, he said.

“With enhanced focus on innovation and rural initiative, we introduce the Great Innovation Challenge. This event would lead Intaglio to a few villages where the future managers of the world would apply their classroom knowledge and bright minds to improve the existing conditions. To identify and encourage the future entrepreneurs, we have i2I – the entrepreneurship fest – incorporated in Intaglio. In recognition of their contribution and relevance in the current context, we have also shared space with Non government organizations and trusts.”

Leena Chatterjee, faculty advisor, praised the efforts of the student community in pulling off this extravaganza. “As the faculty advisor, it was a very pleasing experience for me to see a bunch of students sharing responsibility and putting in hard work for this mammoth annual event. All the competitive and non-competitive events have been designed in-house. That the student team came up with a complete simulation server for one of the games on its own and implemented it successfully speaks volumes about the kind of effort put in”, she said. She went on to highlight some of the flagship events this fest. “Innovation and entrepreneurship have got their due share of stage space with events like Great Innovation Challenge and i2I, the entrepreneurship fest.”

The CSR aspect of Intaglio was also brought out by her. “Recent times have also seen an enhanced role being played by Non government organizations in various fields supplementing the efforts of the government. A lively discussion on corporate social responsibility and public private partnership has been extended beyond the classroom by Intaglio. The team has partnered with many NGO’s and used its forum to disseminate information about many of them.”

The event concluded with a scintillating performance by the Dramatics Cell of IIMC which staged its flagship play “Where there’s a Will”, written by noted playwright Mahesh Dattani. A delightful play with undercurrents of deep humour, it kept the audience riveted to their seats till the end.

1. Joka Times » Blog Archive » Intaglio Day-1 Says:
   January 21st, 2009 at 3:55 am

   [...] Day Zero [...]

2. Joka Times » Blog Archive » Intaglio Day-2 Says:
   January 21st, 2009 at 3:58 am

   [...] Day Zero [...]