The President, Kapidhwaja Singh introduced each member of the student council and outlined their roles and responsibilities. Primarily people introduced to the students included the Hostel Affairs Secretary, the Student Exchange Coord., the IT Rep, the PGP representatives and the placement representatives. The council has been working tirelessly behind the scenes to ensure that the batch faces little problems in acclimatization to the new conditions. This was especially true this year given the difficulties of accommodating an enlarged batch with the new infrastructure yet to come up. The college also faces challenges in terms of keeping up with growing demands from the IT infrastructure. The IT Rep. assured the students that the whole system would be upgraded within a couple of months. This comes as a relief to a number of students worried about the measures the college is taking to keep up with the pent-up numbers.

Students were also introduced to the ISG, the campus group that maintains all internal software systems and also backs this website. They were introduced to the variety of tools and applications the ISG has developed and encouraged the students to get to know and use them. Sunil Chandrasekhar a first year student said “It was great to know that there is this huge student team working to keep the show running in the background. It’s great that we have such a responsive and well-managed team. And it was nice getting to know the faces behind the ISG; they are so huge on campus!”

We at Jokatimes would encourage the batch of 46/16 to get to know their council better and participate in campus development activities. What they say about democracy is true after all – if you don’t speak up, nothing gets done!

Honorable Director of the institute, faculty, officers and staff, our esteemed guests and my dear friends,

I express my greetings to everyone on this occasion of India’s 60th republic day.  We, as a republic, have come a long way in the last 59 years. We have a long list of achievements accomplished since 26th Jan 1950 and even a longer list of things to be done. We are all aware of it. I would not waste your time by going into those details. What I want to speak about is “what is expected of us students 59 years after the formation of the republic”. 

We are privileged to have found a place in this premier institute of the country and getting a heavily subsidized education whereas, there are lakhs and lakhs of people waiting outside the walls. We are proud of our accomplishment and so should we. The nation adores us, the nation feels proud of us and the nation expects their children to be like us. But, the nation also expects something from us.  

We are all known for our business acumen and our problem solving abilities. We are going to be the business leaders of tomorrow. But, is this all we need to be?

What we also need is to be thought leaders for others, to be opinion centers of the country.

In the month of September 2008, we were all shocked by the news of Lehmann brothers collapsing and American economy going into economic depression. But we missed the news of 50 lakhs people displaced in the worst ever flood in north Bihar, the news of communal outburst in Orissa and the likes. It is true that the Lehmann collapse is very detrimental to our careers, but I don’t think the other news were so insignificant that we didn’t even give a second thought. 

The recent blasts in Mumbai will be remembered for so many reasons. But one reason that I feel worth mentioning here is- it made the people living in posh localities of South Mumbai realize that their expensive ACs and  marbled bungalows were not strong enough to isolate from the ground realities the nation was facing. 

We will have to consider these factors when we do the DCFs or SWOT analysis of our careers, our business and our lives. This is because a major part of the investments in building our careers have come from this nation. The opportunity costs of these investments are very high. How does the country manage to provide this; -by cutting down drought relief money of a Vidarbha farmer, by cutting down the medical facilities at a government hospital in a village or by simply letting a few more thousand people die out of hunger.

I do not mean that we should leave the corporate and join social service, but what we must do is try and repay the debt that we owe to this nation and to its people.  

What do we need to do?

Get aware of the ground realities, start identifying the ways in which we can repay the debt and be a thought leader for others to follow.

Let us all Accept the challenge and make her a better republic!

Happy republic day!

Jai Hind!

for Jokatimes
Abhishek Nagaraj 

• Foster communication both internally and externally
• Be democratic, fair, accountable and accessible to its members
• Cultivate unity and goodwill among its members
• Solve problems with the best interest of students in mind
• Enhance the quality of student life by providing essential services, social events and a strong unified voice through effective communication and dedicated leadership.

The Students’ Council is also involved in arranging various student related activities and initiating student programs related to the institute. It also supports various other student bodies within the campus.