The theme for this session was: 'Changing Demographic Profile of India- Role of Youth in Innovation'The stage was set with people from across age groups. Moderated by Rahul Bedi (Director- Corporate Affairs, Intel India), the panel focused on role of youth in innovation. Rahul started with a candid Q&A with Kaushik Srivatsan (Grand Prize Winner, Intel International Science and Engg Fair). Young Kaushik won everyone's heart with his innocent responses to some real pressing questions and lived through his journey of reaching (and then winning) the grand prize. What stood out was the role of mentors and scope of such engagements.
Next was HK Mittal (Adviser and Head- National Science & Tech Entrepreneurship Development Board). Must be in his 50s, but quite young by spirit, Mittal narrated anecdotes and stories from Indian entrepreneurs in driving the point home that Indians are ingenuous. His was the most admired and engaging talk of the day. He revealed many instances of grassroots level innovations which came from the strength of Innovation Ecosystem and often driven by personal passion.
He was immediately followed by Suhas Gopinath (CEO, Globals), who became one of the world's youngest CEOs at an age of 14. Suhas took the audience through his schools days and interesting moments of his startups journey. What came out was a profound sense of applying creativity and having an ambition.
The last talk came from Shouvick Mukherjee (Head, Yahoo! R&D India) where he discussed about the early days of his working with Yahoo! and how David Filo (Yahoo's co-founder) used to be frugal in innovation spending, but rich in customer insight. In all a well received talk session. Was the time for audience to take another break and be ready for the next session.
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