I know blogging has been intermittent, but that’s because I have been caught up with loads of other things which left little time for blogging. Actually, I have been on the road for a while and updating this space through my mobile can be a bitch. Hence refrained.

So here’s an update from my side:

• I have bid farewell to the desert and my residential address will not contain the pincode 333031 anymore.
• I will be spending the next 6 months working (at least) at the National Council of Applied Economic Affairs in New Delhi.
• At the time of writing this post, I am interning at Sarvajal, a terrific organization, providing clean affordable water to rural India and as a part of which I am traveling all across rural Gujarat.
• I have been selected as a student delegate to the South American Business Forum in Buenos Aires (I am one of only 100 selected I am told), so in case you fund me, I can attend this interesting event.
• And finally, I am the Director of the Content and Agenda Team which is working on the BITSAA Global Meet. This is going to be EPIC. The event is the first of its kind in BITSian history. There will be specific posts in the near future dedicated to this alone.

Of course this wont stop me writing about the usual boring social entrepreneurship stuff (a term I am increasingly getting irritated by) and random niceties.

Rishabh Kaul is a rising economics undergraduate at BITS Pilani. Check out his profile at Linkedin or buzz him at rishabhkaul[at]gmail[dot]com

Once again, he’s the list of the BITS Pilani, Goa folks who made it to the IIMs this year. Please add names in the comments section.

Unless stated, all the folks are from the 2006 Batch.

Pilani Campus

Abhijeet Kamath: C (WL)

Abhishek Agarwal: B,C

Akhil Puri(2005): B

Amit Mirchandani (2002): L , B(WL)

Arjit Chandra:  A (WL 11)

Deepak Maloo: B

Khushboo Saraf(2004): B

Neelabh Singh: B

Rachit Chandra: B

Robin Thomas(2004): A, C(WL)

Sandeep Devarakonda (2002): C

Shoaibuddin Ahmad: C

Shubhodeep Ghosh: B

Shushant Chandak: L

Shweta Ramakrishnan: A,C

Tara Ravi(2005):??

Vishal Barfiwala(2004): B (WL 25)

Goa Campus:

Abhinav Pophali:B

Anuj Jhaveri:A,C

Ajay Y.V.S: A

Deepak Joshi:B

Ganesh Vernekar: A

Nizar Md:A

Rahul Sharma:B

Roushan Kumar: L

Sagar M:A

Saurav Ghosh:A,C

Rishabh Kaul is a rising economics undergraduate at BITS Pilani. Check out his profile at Linkedin or buzz him at rishabhkaul[at]gmail[dot]com

At the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership’s Rural Entrepreneurship Development(RED) division we’re on the look out for market based approaches to helping rural communities (often right outside the campus).

However, what is also important is to educate the college community regarding the pressing social issues that plague our nation (and the world) and how enterprises (often community lead) can help uplift sections of society. RED would like to help create a class of more responsible BITSians who are socially conscious and use their technological and business acumen to find solutions to alleviating poverty and help generate income for rural communities.

It is for this reason that we’re creating a RED resource section which will contain information on the emerging sectors, case studies of success stories (and sometimes failure) of models that worked at the Base of Pyramid, books that inspire on to get their hands dirty, reports that show figures and business models, important articles from credible sources. Hopefully, more and more BITSians will skim through it and realize the incredible opportunities that lay in front of them in the responsible business sector.

We’re in the middle of the compilation, which should be completed anytime next week. We also plan to publish this resource on one of the top blogs on social entrepreneurship in India.

If you can contribute to this resource in anyway (articles, books, reports, case studies), please shoot me a mail at rishabh at celbits dot org

Rishabh Kaul is a rising economics undergraduate at BITS Pilani. Check out his profile at Linkedin or buzz him at rishabhkaul[at]gmail[dot]com

Net Impact recently released a report titled Undergraduate Perspectives: The usiness of changing the world. Some findings:

88% of the students believe that for profit organizations should take into consideration the societal and environmental issues.

37% believe corporations are working towards that (this number doubled from 2007) and only 24% feel business leaders are responsible.

73% feel that responsible actions lead to business profits

84% want to seek employment opportunities that are socially relevant.

82% think their schools are doing a fair job of preparing them for their post-graduate interests. 75% of students are also confident their colleges are preparing them to specifically do good in the world, a signifi cant increase from only46% in 2007.

Do check out the report for other interesting stats.

However one important thing to keep in mind is that the majority of these responses are from Net Impacts’ undergraduates’ nearly all of which belong to US. It would be interesting to see how people from other emerging economies respond to this, especially China, which practices nationalistic capitalism.

In my university I notice a handful of people who want to get into this sector. Not a lot, but a decent number. A lot of them have the interest but either can’t find the resources to further their interest about the sector or don’t know how to look for opportunities in this sector. While there are a lot of opportunities within the campus to look for opportunities too (such as the Rural Entrep Division at CEL, Nirmaan, NSS etc), there aren’t enough linkages between the social enterprises in the region and the college (with the exception of maybe Source Pilani).

I would love to see some social enterprises come to Pilani for recruitment, or involve some students through the TIC projects. As with regard to the TIC projects, currently the college demands some money from the enterprises, perhaps in case of social enterprises, the money demanded can be waived off, or decreased (again depending on their revenue stream).

End note: Would 3/4th of the students from my university agree that the college is doing a good job to help them find their interests for their post graduate degree?

Rishabh Kaul is a rising economics undergraduate at BITS Pilani. Check out his profile at Linkedin or buzz him at rishabhkaul[at]gmail[dot]com

Oasis, BITS Pilani’s cultural festival ended less than a week ago. This will also most probably be my last Oasis as a student on campus. Of the few firsts that took place this Oasis was me winning my first Oasis Quiz. The quiz itself was quite a spectacle. Only in BITS Pilani will one find 450 odd people sitting down in an auditorium at 11 in the night writing the prelims to a quiz which would go into the wee hours of the night.

We won the quiz on the last question, despite amassing a lead of 60 points after the first 2 rounds.

Also, all the 6 teams on stage were BITS teams.

And this directly brings us to the crux of the post. For the last 4-5 years, the quizzing in Oasis and Apogee(our tech fest) has been limited to BITSian participation. Few teams form other colleges attend the fest only for the sake of the quiz. Competitions dealing with the finer arts of dancing, treasure hunting and rocking your brains out receive far diverse participation (although quizzes receive far more participation that any other event). It’s a shame because there are around 2000 people coming to Oasis from other colleges.

Now this would be fine if it weren’t for a tiny issue of community engagement. With all the 6 teams on stage belonging to a single college the average BITSian who isn’t remotely interested in quizzing has no incentive to watch the event.

As it is, quizzing is very much an outsider’s sport and take away the element of rooting for your college and you’re left with a bunch of 70-80 odd people sitting in the front seats while the masses evacuate the auditorium (with a 1400 seating capacity).

I have seen this happening with other literary events too. The biggest problem with all this is that the team spirit is lost and it becomes more about who won the quiz rather than which college did he/she belong to. It irks me to notice that a bunch of 10 girls from Gargi or LSR can cheer and show more spirit than 4000 students on campus. Come to think of it, I hardly heard any cheers from the audience when BITS’ team came runners up in Rocktaves this year.

I have no doubts that BITSian quizzers are amongst the best in North India (I have attended and won/heard of others winning enough festivals to confirm that), and as a member of the quizzing society on campus it somehow makes me wonder if this lack of diverse participation is creating a hurdle for quizzing on campus to scale up.

Last year during the Brain of BITS finals, there were 5 Pilani boys on stage along with a 6th fella who came from the Dubai campus. He gave the eventual winner, a man known by the moniker or King (or King D or Ravishing Ravi if you aren’t into the whole brevity thing) very stiff competition. BOB too came down to the last question.

So what can be done about this?

One strategy is to keep a cap on the teams that make it through on stage from a particular college, but then the flaw in this system is that there is hardly any quality non BITSian participation in terms of quizzing during Oasis. So in the unlikely case of this being implemented, the quality of the event will go down drastically.

One reason for poor outside participation is because Oasis almost always clashes with one of the IIT fests and the cheap fellows that these IITians are just end up going to each others’ fest. DU too doesn’t turn up, I am aware of some pretty good folks in DCE/NSIT/Stephens. They just don’t come. Is it the 5 hours through rural yet picturesque Haryana that prevents them from coming? I don’t know.

Why doesn’t this happen with other events such as MUN? What is it with MUN and DU colleges? I am going to have a MUN inside a well in Jhunjhunu district and I am sure I will have 12th graders from DPS RK Puram ready to sign up and dive in, ready to speak on the foreign policies of Tanzania.

Mean while, if you’re a student from any other college and is remotely interested in Quizzing, do turn up for either Apogee or Oasis to take part in some awesome and tasty quizzes.

Rishabh Kaul is a rising economics undergraduate at BITS Pilani. Check out his profile at Linkedin or buzz him at rishabhkaul[at]gmail[dot]com

Just got this news via Vijay, BITS Pilani’s previous Students Union Prez.

BITS Pilani is now extending its arms and inviting working professionals (or ex-working professionals in case you’re retired, or a banker) to come over to BITS for a stint as a visiting professor. The programme is called Back to BITS. As of now the domains include (but aren’t restricted to)

1. Robotics
   
2. Mechatronics
3. Composite materials
4. Nanotechnology
5. Microelectronics
6. Embedded systems
7. Chemical Process Systems Engineering
8. Entrepreneurial skill development

BITSAA launched this only yesterday and from what I hear, the selection criteria is going to be rigorous.

Here’s something which some of you who are still studying might want to consider a while after you  would have passed out of this place. And if you’re already out and want to get back in, shoot a mail to campusrelations-team@bitsaa.org

Personally, I think this is a fantastic initiative. Abhilash in his 30 before 30 list had mentioned to teach at BITS for a semester, well the ball is in court now. I am sure he’d prefer coming here than digging for oil somewhere in the middle of no where and wouldn’t mind the pay cut (albeit a hefty pay cut).

Apart from getting some really enthusiastic and knowledgable professors, it will hopefully also boost up our research. And if these professors like to make merry, then its all the more better

Rishabh Kaul is a rising economics undergraduate at BITS Pilani. Check out his profile at Linkedin or buzz him at rishabhkaul[at]gmail[dot]com

The BITS Pilani Election Commission which is in charge of conducting the Students Union Elections on campus has often been accused of having very rigid norms. The guidelines issued by them include points which forbid candidates to advertise using animals (?!) or address a group of more than 8.

This time around though they have gone easy on one rule. The candidates are allowed to have one blog each to express their views. And the most heartening part is seeing that Wordpress was chosen as the blogging platform.

It’s will be interesting to see if the e-campaigning will make any difference.

On the other hand its rather sad to see how the essence of the new web is completely lost with the EC still living in WEB 1.0. Blogs yes, but comments disabled. And what about twitter? Does the EC understand the meaning of posting content online. Do they realise that although they can stop the presidential candidates from campaigning on other mediums, they cant stop the 4000 plus people on campus from sharing these posts on twitter, orkut facebook or delicious. Neither can they stop people from posting responses to these posts on their own blogs (or can they?). All these is effectively campaigning for one of the two candidates.

Oh well, lets wait and watch

Presidential blogs:

Praveendra Singh Mahla

Sudheer Babu

Rishabh Kaul is a rising economics undergraduate at BITS Pilani. Check out his profile at Linkedin or buzz him at rishabhkaul[at]gmail[dot]com

Conquest ended today. Yes, well it doesn’t sound that melodramatic considering it started yesterday.

It was also my first Conquest as the member of CEL. I had missed last years Conquest for I was away in Singapore taking part in IMS Quotient, a inter-college quiz competition. This years Conquest was interesting with a variety of speakers to cater to everyones interests.

The talks were good. Meeting the speakers in person was even better. I personally enjoyed interacting with Mahesh Murthy (the interaction was limited to me asking him a couple of questions), Prajakt Raut (who surprisingly has read this blog), Sharad Kamra, a consultant for NEN who has been really helpful and sees great potential in CEL, Gaurav Mishra (half of the linkbacks from this blog are directed to his) as well as Mary Joyce, a big digital activist (who I later found out was one of the think tanks behind the Obama campaign).

Listening to these guys speak at Conquest was interesting because everyone got something new to the table.

Mahesh Murthy’s speech was easily the largest crowd puller with some of the audience oozing out of the hall due to lack of seating (as well as standing) arrangement. But I think what impressed me the most was his “don’t throw this crap at my face” attitude. And when we did, he gave us a piece of his mind (and from what I heard from folks who had seen him at Eureka last year, he was being way too kind).

Start-up showcase was also a huge hit. Right after Murthy’s talk, undreds flocked to the stalls of Incredible India, Rang De, One Billion Minds and Greenobin. Rang De interested me quite a lot, specifically for the really low interest rate at which they gave loans wrt to some of the other players out there. I had also recently learnt of their new addition, Rang De education. I would have loved to have a chat with them about their future plans, but then the time didn’t permit me that. Oh well, I am sure to run into them sometime in the near future. One billion minds also seems like an exciting crowdsoucing project targetting a niche segment, the students. Greenobin would’ve made a killing had Satyam approached them before things got out of hand

Lots of hard work went behind this Conquest especially becase it was so early into the semester, so there was really not much time to take it easy. The hospitality team according to me did a fabulous job with my pals Karteek and Shruti leading the way and a very able team of juniors backing them up.

Kudos to everyone who was associated with Conquest 2009 and helped make it a success.

Do follow the conversation and tweets that revolved around Conquest at #conquest2009

Rishabh Kaul is a rising economics undergraduate at BITS Pilani. Check out his profile at Linkedin or buzz him at rishabhkaul[at]gmail[dot]com

A couple of hours from now and I will be aboard an Indigo flight with heaps of luggage (mostly comprising of dirty clothes and books) piercing through the dawn sky towards Dilli.

But there’s no time to chill. Pilani beckons and more importantly, Conquest. This time BITS Pilani’s international B Plan competition will be held on 8-9th of August.

The speakers list is highly impressive. This time we have

Dr Ajit Ranade, Chief Economist, Aditya Birla Group

Mahesh Murthy, a Pinstormer and a  Seedfunder and (also benevolent enough to give his office space to the Bombay Quiz Club every week.)

Raj Gollamudi, Co-founder of Blue Stream Ventures (A look at their portfolio)

Prajakt Raut, founder of Orange Cross, a company that helps emplyers deliver healthcare to their employees. He has also served as the Asia Director of TiE.

Naren Dubey, COO of Scan Cafe (check out their profile on Crunchbase)

Sashikant Khandelwal, Founding member and the chief architect behind TheFind (who a little while back had 5 pending petents to his name, though will get more recent updates on the present condition).

Update:

More speakers:

Rahul Chandra, co-founder and Director at Helion Venture Partners.

Mukul Singhal,  an Associate at Canaan Partners

Sujit Panigrahi, ADG, Commonwealth Games 2010

Gayatri Rath, VP, Corporate Communications, GE

This time the finalists who will be making a trip down to the desert will include people from Ivy Leagues(Brown), ISB, NITIE, IIT B’s SJSOM, IIT R, IIM B and BITS Pilani. Making it this far itself speaks a lot about the merit of the B Plans. However the final showdown will take place in Pilani. More about the participants in coming posts.

I shall be live blogging Conquest, both on my blog in the Conquest section as well as the CEL blog and hopefully on twitter(@conquest2009) as well.

Rishabh Kaul is a rising economics undergraduate at BITS Pilani. Check out his profile at Linkedin or buzz him at rishabhkaul[at]gmail[dot]com

Here’s the basic list of guys I know personally, I’m sure there are a hell more, so do keep updating the list through the comments section

2005 Batch
Aravind Vijayasarathy A,B,C,I,K
Ashwin Iyer B,C,L,I,K
Aditya Radhakrishnan I
Abhishek Humbad B,C,L,K
Ishan Bhanu C
Tushar A,B
Manavpreet Singh B,C,K
N Anerudh C
Karan Dhall B
Salil A
Astha Modi K
Ritesh Agrawal A
Navin Madhavan B

2004 Batch
R Vijay A,B

2003 Batch
Sriharsha Majety B,C

Thanks to Tapan, Sushant, Garima Dhingra, Ajay Srinath for inputs

Rishabh Kaul is a rising economics undergraduate at BITS Pilani. Check out his profile at Linkedin or buzz him at rishabhkaul[at]gmail[dot]com