Entrepreneurship and Innovation

 Made in JIS is a competition that enables students in teams to propose innovative ideas that can be turned into commercial products, after planning and mentoring through an incubator. We had a competitive evaluation through our faculty, Debmitra Ghosh, who coordinated the event, and a distinguished panel of judges. Ms. Jaspreet Kaur, Director, JIS group is the chief supporter and patron of this event.

We were at the inauguration of the finale, termed the Celeb edition, recently. Some pics- 

Jury members, VC, and Ms. Jaspreet Kaur, along with us Pro VCs. Above.

One of the jury members, being felicitated. Above.

I Think.....

I decided that I would write a thoughtful blog. Therefore, I sat down to think. The only problem is, whenever you decide to do something, that something eludes you. So the thoughts which otherwise run riot, ebbed to a trickle, and after a bit, completely vanished.

So then I decided I will write something thoughtless. And promptly, my thought process was back where it used to be-on track. I now have a wealth of thoughts on conventional wisdom, and what it does to all of us. Will share a few.

Conventional wisdom says that we have to grow up. That childhood and its glory are at best ephemeral, with a life of a few years. Grown up life is the majority of our life. The impact of this is that there are too many grown-ups, acting, well...grown-up, all around. And the wars and the competition grows by the day, and innocence and fun are hard to come by.

Conventional wisdom tells us that one must categorise people- by the clothes they wear, the cars they drive (or whether they do) how they smell, how well-groomed they are, by their skin colour, by the amount of degrees they accumulate, or their accent. This deprives us of some valuable interactions that can teach us a lot about life. And in the worst case, results in hate crimes.

Conventional wisdom says that you must be loyal to any member of your family, even at a cost to the non-family members of society. A lot of times, this results in nepotism, and a loss of meritocracy and a possible fall in living standards of society as a whole.

Conventional wisdom says that one must put up a show for the outside world, in terms of achievements, material or otherwise. This may result in losing sight of inner happiness, and a loss of peace. Not to mention indebtedness through spending beyond your means.

My Cracker is Louder than Yours

The different ways in which man competes with another! Examples abound, of this competitive spirit. Some of these are-

My car is bigger, more luxurious, more expensive than yours.

My house is bigger, better located than yours.

My wife is better-looking than yours.

My shirt/trousers were made in a better country (Italy/France) than yours (India/Bangladesh).

My guru writes/teaches yoga/discourses better than yours.

Kids' version of the same spirit- "My daddy strongest."

Maybe these days, it would extend into territories like 'My hospital is better than yours.' Or, 'my bypass surgery took longer than yours.'

Making Life Interesting

How to make life interesting is a challenge. One can focus on oneself, or you can look outwards. Both have possibilities. You can learn new things, do new things, delve into philosophy or the meaning of life whatever interests you. You can learn to sing, or play an instrument. Or more easy, read. Or travel. Blogging might be an option too, though it is a little harder for some.

I visited a factory set up by an engineering classmate today, and refreshed a few engineering fundas that I had forgotten long ago. This is an engineering niche product sold across the world by only 3-4 companies, his company being one of the elite crowd. We got to discussing competition, and surprisingly, he said there was little of it. In this day and age, I thought it was amazing that there are businesses without much competition. Wouldn't we all love to be in one such? But then, look around and you will find that in each industry, there are some companies that customers love, and others are also-rans. Worth thinking about the reasons. Not all of them are realising their potential. Same with us? Maybe. Maybe interesting to think about it in our own context. That should make life interesting for a while.