TEDxHyderabad 2016 – Crafting Our Future

It was a beautiful misty morning. The sprawling venue of Sandhya Convention Centre was bustling with enthusiastic ‘Phenomenees’ and the zealous TEDxHyderabad team. All were given a scrumptious breakfast of piping hot Idly, dosa and yummy sandwiches.

Session 1:

ADOPTIMISM – Adopting Optimism

1) KIRAN KANOJIA

Our first speaker of the day is Kiran Kanojia. She is the first blade runner of India. She begins her talk by telling how her life has changed forever with an accident that lead to the leg amputation. She shared important anecdotes from her life – how her parents coming from the rural Haryana encouraged her to study, how she topped the university and got placed in an MNC. She did not let her leg amputation come in the way of living her life to the fullest. She had to go through difficult times. But the way she overcame all that, is a source of inspiration for everyone. Her transformation into a successful blade runner is the story of her invincible strength, courage and determination.

2) SAEED TAJI FAROUKY

Saeed Taji Farouky is a documentary filmmaker from United Kingdom. He gives an unheard perspective to simple human stories. He says that being a Palestinian refugee, his interest has always been in human rights issues. We got to witness his expertise when he played some heart-tugging clips from his sheer brilliant documentaries. In this enlightening talk, he shares his views on how the media still bears the scars of colonisation. He says his documentaries are not about giving voices to the voiceless but about the willingness to listen to their voices.

3) CHINTAKINDI MALLESHAM

Chintakindi Mallesham is a traditional innovator. He hails from a village called Aleru in Nalgonda District, Telangana. In this fascinating talk, he tells us how his drive to find an alternative for the manual hand loom, compelled him to learn English and innovate the machine. A typical Pochampally saree on the manual weaving loom requires the thread to be worked 9000 times around 40 pins. Unable to see his mother straining her hands, he worked hard for 7 years to innovate this machine using steel at the affordable price of INR 13000. He spoke how his occupation needs him to innovate regularly. He gets nostalgic about the day he discussed handlooms with Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam who showed keen interest in the subject. Mallesham garu won the prestigious Rashtrapathi Award, NABARD Award and Amazing Indian Award. Palle Srujana named the machine he invented, after his mother as ‘Lakshmi Asu Machine’.

The event paused for its first conversation break. The inspired attendees talked out their experiences and networked over hot samosas and mirchi bhajis.

Session 2

POSSIBLEAP – A possible leap

The session began with ‘YES I CAN – We’re the Superhumans’ video as a tribute to the RIO 2016 Indian Paralympic Winners!

4) JAAHNAVI SRIPERUMBUDURU

This 14 year old ‘Pride of India’ gave a phenomenal talk on her ambition of scaling the highest peaks of 7 continents – “Mission 7 Summit”. She spoke on how her father carried her on a specially made backpack on a mountaineering trip when she was just 10 months old, and how she started embracing the nature and loved mountaineering to start the professional training at the age of 8. She did her first trek, the ‘Uttarakhand – Roopkhund trek’ (16000ft) at the age of 9. In this highly inspirational talk, she motivates everyone to conquer their own mountain and strongly says that girls can do anything. She dedicates this talk to her father, mentor and her pillar of strength S.Krishna Rao garu.

As per the guidelines of TED, the TEDx should utilise 25% of the duration of their events to showcase the TED talks.

The first TED talk projected is ‘MONICA LEWINSKY – The price of shame’

Watch the talk here: http://www.ted.com/talks/monica_lewinsky_the_price_of_shame

5) SANJAY JAIN

Sanjay Jain is a one of the developers of the Google Map Maker. He, being one of the key contributors of ‘India Stack’, speaks about the high success rates of Aadhar and Jandhan Yojana. He tells us about the ‘Digital Locker’ which is an online platform to store all the important documents electronically. The Road Transport of New Delhi now accepts ‘Digital Locker’ for Driver’s Licenses. He speaks about how JAM (Jandhan Aadhar Mobile) and Digital India will transform the present payment systems. He shares his vision of the ‘Unified Payment Interface’.

The next TED talk is ‘AMIT SOOD – Every piece of art you’ve ever wanted to see — up close and searchable’

Watch the talk here: http://www.ted.com/talks/amit_sood_every_piece_of_art_you_ve_ever_wanted_to_see_up_close_and_searchable

5) SRIKANTH BOLLA

This talk was presented as ‘SRIKANTH BOLLA In Conversation with TEDxHyderabad Organiser Viiveck Verma’.

In this conversation, Srikanth tells us how he had to face discrimination for being a visually challenged person, and how his courage and determination helped him sail against the tide. He says sight is for the eye but vision is for the mind. Being a graduate of MIT, he had three options – taking up a job, starting a non-profit organisation, or becoming an entrepreneur. He chose the last one and started ‘Bollant Industries’ which is into packaging and manufacturing. In this igniting chat, he says his vision for the future is having equal and fair opportunities for everyone.

With this, the second session came to an end. The attendees proceeded to have a scrumptious lunch.

Session 3

PROGRESSENTIAL – Progress that is essential

This session has begun by the dance performance by the students of Shankarananda Kalakshetra – DEVI as the five elements – fire, water, earth, wind and space. It was an astonishing fusion of Bharatanatyam and Contemporary dance forms, choreographed by the renowned dancer, Ananda Shankar Jayant.

Our next speaker, Hon’ble Minister Kalvakuntla Taraka Rama Rao garu couldn’t make it to the event due to his commitment towards the rain-hit city.

6) ASHA de VOS

Being the first Sri Lankan woman to hold a PhD in Marine Biology, Asha de Vos passionately talks about how Arthur C Clarke’s tales sparked her interest in oceans, and how we all need to come together to save them as they’re the final frontier and there is no backup plan. She says that the belief that ‘we need a university degree to find solutions’ is archaic and detrimental to our ecosystem, and we need tailormade solutions by local scientists who know our culture. She is the pioneer of ‘The Blue Whale Project’, the only North Indian Ocean project, which aims to protect the blue whales and increase awareness on oceans.

The next TED talk played is ‘ALEXANDER BETTS – Why Brexit happened — and what to do next’

Watch the talk here: http://www.ted.com/talks/alexander_betts_why_brexit_happened_and_what_to_do_next

7) RAJESH DHUDDU

Rajesh Dhuddu is currently leading the Market Development initiatives at Quatrro Processing services in South Asia. He explains how cryptocurrency network in India would result in equitable distribution of money. He says cryptocurrency transfers are much faster and the cost for the transfer is minimal. He explains the term ‘smart contracts’ and how government in Africa is using this technology. His vision lies in India incorporating bitcoin wallets for all kinds of transactions.

The next TED talk is ‘SAL KHAN – Let’s use video to  reinvent education’

Watch the talk here: http://www.ted.com/talks/salman_khan_let_s_use_video_to_reinvent_education

8) Dr. G.V.RAMANA RAO

Dr.G.V.Ramana Rao is the Director of Emergency Medicine Learning Centre at 108 GVK Emergency Management Research Institute. He shares the journey of 108 emergency services – how it began with the motto of providing emergency services even to the remote areas, and successfully saved 1million lives by 2014. 108 service is an integrated system of public and private partnership. The services have been extended to 15 states and 2 union territories in 10 years. For the places where the ambulance van can’t be reached, ‘108’ boats, 2 wheelers and palanquins have also been introduced. He proudly announces that till now, 1.85 million lives have been saved, and 4,33,000 children were born. His mission is to successfully train 1lakh people for emergencies through ‘100K First Response Program’.

The attendees are given a second conversation break to exchange their ideas and bond over garam chai and snacks.

Session 4

AIMPACT – Aim to impact

This session began with the scintillating performance by award-winning Adil Manuel on the theme of outer space.

Next, ‘The girl effect: The clock is ticking’ by girleffect.org is played.

9) GAGAN NARANG

Gagan Narang is an Indian shooter and an Olympic medalist. He tells how going to a shooting range at the age of 9 sparked his interest and despite having a wrist fracture, went to the coaching. He qualified for Olympics for the first time in 2004. He won Arjuna Award in 2005 and Padmashri in 2010. He tells us how his parents had to sell land to buy his equipment and how that made him determined to not let any parent sell their land for their children’s coaching. He started a coaching centre called ‘Gun for Glory’ which trains students at affordable fees. In this institute, 40 students were selected for full scholarship out of which, 32 members were qualified for National team. The international brand ‘Walther’ now sponsors the equipment at the academy.

10) JASMINDER SINGH GULATI

Jasminder Singh Gulati is the CEO of NowFloats, a start-up that helps local businesses to create and manage their own SEO optimised websites. He shares his experiences of founding that start-up and doing survey for it. He also tells us the stories of local businessmen from different parts of India who have benefitted using the Internet. He says that Internet is a necessity for urban people, but for rural people, it is survival. He tells us that if 1million businessmen come online, there will be 1% of increase in the national GDP. He shares the Prime Minister’s vision of ‘Digital Desh’.

With this, the TEDxHyderabad 2016 came to an end but for all the attendees, it was just the beginning of many new ideas and exciting collaborations!

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