The IIT-Kharagpur Alumni Association, Calcutta, recently held the second edition of its annual flagship programme, IITeration: Nation Building, powered by The Telegraph - You, at The Heritage School.

This year's theme was: India is now a land of infinite opportunities for the GenX.

Hundreds of students of classes IX-XII from various schools in the city and adjoining areas listened to and interacted with a panel of stalwarts.

Sujata Roy, vice president, IIT-Kharagpur Alumni Foundation (India), said students were ready to explore new avenues. "You are ready to take risks," Roy said.

Metro highlights some of the keynotes:

Swami Atmapriyananda
Vice-chancellor, Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda University

"You should intensely love India.... Many of you feel it is a tragedy or an accident that you were born in India," he responded to a student's question on why India was still a developing country and not a developed nation.

Quoting government statistics, he said 98 per cent of IITians dream of going abroad after being educated "at the expense of the poor masses of India". "Developed India will not fall from the sky. It depends on you.... Stay here and contribute."

 

Chandra Shekhar Ghosh
Founder, MD & CEO, Bandhan Bank

At least 591 branches, 2,022 service centres, over 5,50,000 customers and Rs 4,500 crore deposit - that is Bandhan Bank.

Ghosh said he launched an NGO, Bandhan, in 2001 after quitting his job that fetched him Rs 5,000 a month.

His son was little over a year old and his wife had "vehemently" protested his decision, he said.

"I used to make rosogollas, parathas and jalebis in my father's shop before leaving for school at 11am and returning at 4pm," he said.

"I did MSc in statistics but lost my father around the time the results came out. I took up a job with an NGO to survive."

In April 2014, the Reserve Bank of India allowed Bandhan to function as a bank and it opened to the public on August 23, 2015.

 

Sandeep Sengupta
Ethical hacker

Hackers can gain access to email passwords, even if they are masked with asterisks, he told the audience and demonstrated how one can hack into an e-tailer's website and tamper with a product's price before making a purchase.

Sengupta showed the geeks - that's how he addressed the crowd - the immense possibilities available to ethical hackers in view of vulnerable security systems.

"We need 5 lakh cyber security professionals in the coming five years. Right now, we have only 40,000," he said. "It's good news for you... salaries will go up and there will be no recession in this field for the next 10 years."

Sengupta warned that future attacks would be targeted at smartphones and tablets instead of laptops and desktops.

 

Bedabrata Pain
Scientist, innovator, film director and producer

Pointing at the five water bottles kept for the speakers, Pain said they are worth Rs 50. "But 80 per cent of Indians live on less than Rs 50 a day."

He said everyone had heard about happiness. "How can you be happy if people around you are unhappy. I refuse to accept that happiness is just a state of mind.... Those who do not eat cannot be happy. There is an opportunity in India... an opportunity to uplift this 80 per cent people. You do that and you will create an India which all of us will be proud of."

 

 

Sujoy Banerjee
Chief people officer, Tractors India Pvt Ltd

The Don Bosco Park Circus alumnus (1984) spoke about alternative career options available now, like wine-tasting and making cheese, unlike in his childhood when his parents were clear that he had to be either an engineer or a doctor or a chartered accountant.

He felt parents needed counselling more than students. "Rather than talking to students, we should talk to parents first. We as parents put a lot of pressure on our kids.... That's not fair.... I believe students in today's environment are more aware because of the Internet... but parents have to be worked upon."

 

Debaditya Chaudhury
MD, Chowman & Oudh 1590, and VP, Blue Lotus Communications

His message was clear: believe in yourself.

He chose to live in India after graduating from St. Xavier's and doing an MBA from IISWBM.

For the founder member of the band Lakkhichhara, music was another reason why he did not leave the country. Being a foodie, he started a small shop called Chowman in 2010 and now has 13 restaurants in the city that are run with the concept of "neighbourhood fine dining". "Ideas matter. Don't waste your ideas abroad. Use it here," he said.

 

Sanjay Budhia
MD, Patton Group

In his inaugural address, Budhia said: "It is a common debate in all families... whether to stay in our country or to leave for better career prospects." He said India had a "demographic advantage with more than half of its population under 25". India has infinite opportunities, he said.