Indian Institute of Foreign Trade’s Kolkata campus organised Vivaan, a three day event on 4
th, 5th and 6th September. The event kicked off in style on Friday at the sprawling new campus of IIFT. Under the theme “Prism of Opportunities :India and the world”, the three-day business event lived-up to its motto of providing a platform for budding managers and inspired the students from colleges across India to showcase their mettle to the world. It began with a commencement address by Centre Head Dr. K. Rangarajan. The first session was on the theme ‘Realising India’s Trade potential’. Sanjeev Nandwani, Development Commissioner, SEZ's at Ministry of Commerce and Industry; Nikharv Shah, Head of Marketing, Cockett Marine Oil; Amita Khurana, Head-Exports at Tata Steel and a distinguished alumnus of IIFT; Jonathan T. Ward, Principal Commercial Officer, U.S. Consulate General Kolkata, provided valuable inputs on how to strengthen the pillars of trade. He also kicked off the subsequent session on ‘Realising India’s Supply Chain Potential’. Shoummo K. Acharya, MD CEO, eTrans Solutions, Vikas Sarangdhar, Partner at Target Consulting LLP; Siddhartha Roy, Head of Operations and Supply Chain , Oxford University Press; and Pramod Kumar Srivastava, CEO, Allied ICD Services Limited, were the other esteemed panellists who gave a succinct overview on the challenges with the logistics of today. The last session on Day 1 was on the theme ‘Transformation of Vision into Action’. Ratan Jalan, Ex-CEO of Apollo Lifestyle; and Kumar Ankit, Co-founder of Green Leaf Energy, presented their views on passion, and how pursuing it can take one to higher altitudes in life. The sessions on the second day were equally enriching in terms of content. Indian Economy is a tricky thing to analyse. So the first session on Sunday was on the theme ‘Indian Economy: Crouching Tiger or Sauntering Elephant’. Dr. Prachi Mishra, Specialist Adviser, Reserve Bank of India, Dr. Soumya Kanti Ghosh, Chief Economic Advisor,SBI; Dr. Mukul Mitra, Corporate Trainer. Anurag Batra, Chairman, Businessworld, made an insightful and interactive presentation on pursuing entrepreneurship. Varun Sharma, Industry Head, Google, and a distinguished alumnus of IIFT presented his views on the future of Marketing. Vittesh Kalambi, Practice Lead,Absolutdata elaborated on the relevance of analytics in the digital age. The event, on the whole, was an irrepressible mix of information and inspiration and enabled the “germination of innovative and productive ideas” that will help shape the policies of tomorrow.