A dusty office, two strategically placed mobiles with “good quality” microphones and one tripod camera.
That’s how it started! Rustic innovation at its best came to rescue when a bunch of determined folks endeavoured to tread the road less taken. At a time where the pulls and pressures of the First Year are over and done with, and the mood to take life “light” is at an all-time high, students of IIM Kozhikode’s Economics, Politics and Social Science Interest Group (EPS) decided to invest time and effort into starting a digital channel of in-depth analysis of burning issues of the day with eminent faculty/guest speakers. Here’s bringing to you some inside scoop from Awaaz – the YouTube Channel from IIM Kozhikode that’s been making waves!
Link to the channel.
EPS within IIM Kozhikode is known to be the go-to forum for clarifying and explaining current events of the world to the student's community in an environment of hectic schedules and sacrosanct deadlines. Traditionally, the mode of delivery was physical with the group organizing events such as Viewpoint (discussion forum on focused issues), MUNs, Budget Discussion, Quizzes and sending out fortnightly current affairs Newsletters.
However, such events become restricted to only the IIMK Community and to only the people who could spare time to physically attend the events. In an increasingly digital world, it made sense to take the plunge into technology and create relevant content for the larger MBA community and beyond.
Brainchild of Krishna Karthik (KK), Awaaz is a YouTube Series where KK, as representative of the 7 member EPS Team interviews eminent faculty and subject matter experts on niche topics. The first interview was with Economics expert, Dr Rudra Sensarma on the topic of NPAs. This video became an instant hit and the impact was such that it featured as a story on New Indian Express. Today, Awaaz boasts of discussions with personalities such as Dr Lionel Aranha, Dr Sthanu Nair as well as LG of Puducherry, Dr Kiran Bedi herself!
To record the first interview for a bunch of newbies without access to sophisticated recording rooms was an exasperating journey. Multiple mobiles were used to record the audio which were later stitched together with the video to generate a seamless viewing experience. Over time the process became routinised and more fluent with better equipment. But the story itself serves as a testament to the drive of Team EPS to make this happen.
The rest as they say, is history! Awaaz went on to garner a lot of attention from the IIM Community for its deep content compressed into short videos which can be accessed from anywhere in the world. They served as a great tool for the students to prepare for the placements process in particular and in understanding events better in general.
With this digital medium EPS and Awaaz are going global with an aim to create a platform beyond one campus which can bridge knowledge gaps across domains and help elevate the functional understanding of MBA students and aspirants alike.