The 7th Yuva Summit, an international youth conference on leadership, innovation, and entrepreneurship hosted by the Leaders Accelerating Development program, began in Hubballi on 28th January with over one thousand attendees, including students, faculty, entrepreneurs, and honored guests.
The first session of the day was LEAD Talk, an opportunity for six stand-out young people from the LEAD program to share their stories on stage in front of full auditorium of 1000+. Hailing from across India, these young leaders inspired the audience of not only their peers, but their elders too. Featured leaders were Vedanth B (K.L.S GIT Belgaum), Santosh Biradar (DET), Deepali Bhosle (Smt. A A Patil's Womens College Chikodi), Sriujan Mara (VREC, Nizamabad), Veeresh Varur (REC Hulkoti), Prajwal Rao (Mysore University).
We were honored to host many esteemed role models, including Magsaysay Awardee Bezwada Wilson, Deshpande Foundation Founders Dr. Gururaj Deshpande and Jaishree Deshpande, Open Water Swimmer Bhakti Sharma, MD of Kirloskar Ferrous Ltd R. V. Gumaste, Deputy Director for Science and Technology at the MIT Energy Initiative Dr. Robert Stoner, Triple Effect Founder Sally Ng, SHAD Coordinator Nichoas Clermont, S Mobility Chairman Dilip Modi, Author Adhitya Iyer, Adviser to the HITACHI Chairman Raju Reddy, Secretary of the IT, Electronics & Communications.
The Faculty Panel session began and featured esteemed faculty members from across the country. Veeranna D. K. (SGBIT Belagavi), Arun Kumar M.V. (Bapuji Polytechnic Davangere), Vasudev Parvati (SDMCET Dharwad). International delegates included Leon Sandler (Executive Director, The Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation at MIT) and Nicholas Clermont (SHAD Youth Engagement Coordinator, Pond Deshpande Center at Queens University) also joined us in this panel discussion. Sally Ng (Founder and CEO, The Triple Effect Inc.) moderated. The panel primarily discussed the ways in which youth innovation and entrepreneurship was administered in the programs they carry out.
Throughout the day at Yuva Summit, 60+ of the top LEAD projects of the year (chosen from over 6,602 projects) were exhibited on the event grounds. Stalls were inaugurated by R. V. Gumaste and Bhakti Sharma. Proud LEADers talked to their peers, entrepreneurs, and faculty about the positive impact they were making in their communities.
Faculties and youth were acknowledged for their excellence through multiple awards for outstanding efforts. These awards were presented by renowned legends Dr. Desh Deshpande, Jaishree Deshpande, Raju Reddy, Dilip Modi and Bezwada Wilson.
The "Best Supporting Faculty" was awarded to V B Grampurohit (Smt. Kumudben Darbar College, Vijayapur), Dr. Veeranna DK (SGBIT Belagavi).
KLS Institute of Technology Belagavi was presented with "Best Performing College"
Smt. Kumudben Darbar College, Vijayapur was awarded with "Best Supporting College"
Smt. A. A Patil's Women's College Chikodi was awarded "Best Supporting & Performing College"
Five youth were awarded "Best LEADer" for their innovating projects. This included Bhimshi B Udachannavar who was recognized for the innovative breaking system designed for bullock carts, Vishwanath Hiremath (Smt. Kumudben Darbar College, Vijayapur) who replaced 18400 taps in Vijayapur City, saving 8 lac liters per week, Nikita Chougala (Smt. A A Patil's Womens College Chikodi) who built over 100 shelters for cattle in Borgal Village, Manjushree Kamble (Smt. A A Patil's Women's College Chikodi) who successfully lobbied for a 2.5 lakh drinking water facility for her colony and Gurudatta E (HPPC Govt. First Grade College Challakere) who helped 200 individuals get labour cards.
Other awards were presented to Niranjan K (AITM Belagavi) as the "Most Entrepreneurial Idea" for the low cost portable water filter that he designed costing only Rs 25. Lastly, "Most Innovative Solution Technical" was given to Yuvaraj Patil (VSMIT Nipani) who established a multi-talented robot machine for areca nut farming.
Yuva Summit was anchored by An Evening with Legends, where the five legends on stage shared their knowledge, passion, and inspiration for making a difference.
This is what so many of the attendees came for, to bask in the presence of these five game changers and change makers, and it did not disappoint.
The legends not only shared their own stories, but with moderation by Mr. Gururaj Deshpande, answered more in depth questions about the impacts they have made and how they did it. With that, the 7th Yuva Summit concluded under Hubballi's night sky.
