When Govardhan came visting……..

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The best part of being in an IIT is that you are right in the midst of an academic hub which serves as a platform to interact with eminent personalities from different walks of life-political,industrial and Media.But what if you find yourself interacting with an ecletic gathering of the shooting stars of today-You would find no words to express yourself and that is exactly what happened on January 20th at IIT Delhi.

This is the day when Gordon Brown(Or Govardhan as he is known by UK settled Indians) came visiting to have a discussion on India-UK entrepreneurship.And he was accompanied by Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath and Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal.And at the centre stage was a contingent of British and Indian Entrepreneurs-the icing on the cake was the presence of the Virgin Group Billionaire-Hold your breath-Richard Branson.And among the ensemble of prominent persona were CMD Bharti Sunil Bharti Mittal ,Wipro Technologies ex-CEO Vivek Paul,Beer Baron Karan Billimoria and Jet Chairman Naresh Goyal.The event was hosted by Prannoy Roy,renowned media figure.
Gordon Brown spoke on entrepreneurship in the UK and India.He stressed on the importance of Angel networks that would provide venture capital to youth. Mr Kapil Sibal added that India and Britain could build on an empire of ideas which was the need of the 21st century.The entire session was captivating and enriching as many insights were shared by different enrepreneurs as they talked about their success stories,education,their ventures,risk taking and encouraged all students present to make use of the huge opportunity presented to them in terms of being a part of the IIT fraternity.In Prannoy Roy’s words”We have a billion dollars on stage and a future billion dollars sitting in front of the stage”.
Among the personalities present in the audience were Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin,BCG India Chairman Arun Maira and Caparo Group founder Lord Swaraj Paul.I was one of the few lucky people who got a chance to interact face to face with Arun Sarin and Lord Swaraj Paul.What struck me was that both of them were such down to earth people.The 5 minutes I spent talking to them were perhaps one of the most inspring moments of my life. Lord Swaraj Paul urged us to “be the best in whatever you do and to love what you do.”Mr Sarin had one piece of advice:”when in doubt….dont listen to what your head or what your heart tells you…listen to your gut feeling”
I shall treasure these words and the autographs I took…….this is perhaps one of the fondest memories of DMS that I shall cherish.

Lalitha Ramanathan
Class of 2009

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