Students take part in the rangoli competition at XISS, Ranchi, on Thursday. Picture by Hardeep Singh

Budding managers from the city on Thursday showed that they could do more than crunch numbers and rattle off strategies, as the curtains went up on Panache 2012, the three-day inter-college fest of Ranchi’s XISS.

The three-day event, which serves as a break break from the daily routine of life at the biz cradle every year, was inaugurated by XISS director Father Alex Ekka under an overcast sky on Thursday. The event is being organised under the supervision of professor Sajeet Lakra.

The inaugural day of the festival saw XISS wearing a colourful look with students from Central University of Jharkhand, Ranchi University, St Xavier’s College, Cambridge Institute of Technology, Institute of Science and Technology and Kejriwal Institute of Technology, among others, enthusiastically streaming in to take part in the events lined up for them. The theme for this year’s events is Carnival.

Thursday kicked off with more than 150 students putting on their running shoes to take part in a short marathon to announce the re-arrival of Panache this year, packed with the same enthusiasm and spirit that makes it click with the students.

“It is like a festival for us. We get an opportunity to mingle with students of other management institutes and forge new bonds of friendships,” said Vikas Kumar, a second-year student of the institute.

The events that took place on Day One of the fest included rangoli, debate and T-shirt painting competition, antakshari, musical events, dance and fashion show, with Calcutta-based band Sixth Veda rocking the crowds to cap off the celebrations.

More than 25 participants gave vent to their oratorical skills during the debate competition on the topic “Will India Ever be a Superpower”, of which 12 were selected for the final round. The selected bunch of students presented their views for and against the topic “Friends are most important part in life”, during the final round of the event.

Elsewhere, the students worked on the theme “Independence in your perspective” during the rangoli competition with participants firing their grey cells to come up with a number of innovative designs in myriad colours.

“I depicted woman empowerment with the help of my colourful rangoli design,” Puja Rani, a final year student of the cradle told The Telegraph.

Similar enthusiasm was witnessed during the T-shirt painting and fashion show events, which were based on the themes “One World” and “Peace” respectively.