Campus

The finals of Vox Pop 2012, the national debate at Jadavpur University, held in association with The Telegraph. Picture by Indrani Banerjee

What: Vox Pop 2012, the national debate at Jadavpur University, in association with The Telegraph.

When: January 12 and 13.

The prelims: Day 1 saw active participation from institutions across the country, including St. Xavier’s College, Presidency University, Jadavpur University, IIT Guwahati, IIT Kanpur, IIT Roorkie, IIM Lucknow, Heritage Institute of Technology, Vellore Institute of Technology and JNU. Twenty-eight teams were sorted into six groups and set to debate on six topics, like “privacy on social media is a paradox”, “we do not require world peace” and “faith stagnates the evolution of thought”. Teams from St. Xavier’s College, Chanakya University and the Heritage Institute of Technology (HIT) battled their way to the finals.

The finals: Adopting the British parliamentary style of debating, Day 2 saw 45 minutes of fiery verbal duels over the motion “healthcare in India should be nationalised”.

“The British parliamentary style is a common form of debate in UK academic circles, where the proposition and opposition teams are divided into four factions with two members each. The students of both teams then take part in the debate as mock prime minister, deputy PM, government member and government whip,” explained Vox Pop organiser Abhishek Pal.

Healthy debate: Mock deputy prime minister Dipayan Sinha cited the success of India’s pulse polio eradication but his arguments met with serious objection as Dhrubo Jyoti (St. Xavier’s College) pointed out: “We are still singing songs of past glory, bringing to notice the slow pace of government actions.”

A series of questions, comments and counter-comments later, Srijan Chakravorty (Chanakya University), the opposition whip, rounded off the debate with: “We need speedy recovery, and we are democratic, let the people choose.”

Winner’s voice: Jury members Pradeep Kakkar, Amitava Chatterjee, Suman Mukhopadhyay and Ronen Roy handed over the best speaker award to Dhrubo Jyoti of St. Xavier’s College. The runner-up was Dipayan Sinha of Heritage Institute of Technology.

Closing comments: Chief guest for the evening Sugata Bose, captain of the Presidency mentor group, concluded by pointing out that no one can work in segregation. He stressed on co-operation for something as universal as healthcare. “The public and private sectors should merge and we expect a proper co-ordination and co-operation between them so that it becomes accessible to the masses. People should be able to claim their right to healthcare, without discrimination.”

Indrani Banerjee

Mir was the quizmaster at I-Kliq 2012, organised by International Management Institute, Calcutta, in association with t2. (Indrani Banerjee)

A campus hardly six months old with a student strength of 22 and a spectacular rainbow-coloured building in Alipore, International Management Institute (IMI) organised its very first event, a national-level business and general knowledge quiz, I-Kliq 2012, in association with t2.

Quiz lovers from institutions like St. Xavier’s College, Heramba Chandra College, New Alipore College, Xavier Institute of Management Bhubaneswar (XIMB), National Institute of Juridical Sciences, IIT Kharagpur, IISWBM, and many more gathered on the IMI campus for the prelims on Sunday, morning. After several rounds of intense quzzing, six teams made it to the finals, which was conducted by Mir.

With Mir at the mic, the afternoon turned into an hour-long fusion of fun, laughter and hilarious brain-teasers, puzzles, crosswords, as well as some serious quiz questions.

The audience enjoyed the posers as much as Mir’s spontaneous advice — like “take life very seriously only after marriage”!

After much grinding of grey cells, Geo Thomas and Somnath Sen from XIMB emerged winners of I-Kliq 2012. The home team and St. Xavier’s College bagged the second and third positions respectively. The winners took home

Rs 50,000, the first runners-up

Rs 25,000 and the second runners-up Rs 10,000. The audience was not allowed to return empty-handed either. Those who answered audience questions correctly were given gift vouchers.

Next up was some entertainment by Dump Terminal.

“It is great to see a new college organise an event like this with only a handful of volunteers. We hope to take it to greater heights in future,” said IMI student Abhishek Banerjee.

IB