28 States: Pre-event Press Release

'28 States - Awakening of the golden bird' - This is a story of how students of Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur have taken a new initiative to change the recent scenarios of problems currently persisting in our country. Yes, one of the brightest minds of the country are now determined to implement feasible solutions to the major state and national problems like corruption, poverty, crime against women, pollution, unemployment, illiteracy, naxalism etc. and thus, awaken the nation.

This year Techkriti, the annual technical and entrepreneurial festival of IIT Kanpur, has come up with this new initiative, '28 States' in which students from all over the country gather together to raise their voices against the problems persisting in their states and come up with feasible solutions to these problems.

The main concept is that one student will be selected from each state and will then be invited to attend the final round in Techkriti'13 (during 15th - 16th March 2013) in IIT Kanpur. Each participant will then be given a stage time to pitch his state problems and their solutions in front of eminent judges from different governmental as well as non-governmental backgrounds like Aseem Trivedi (cartoonist and activist), Alok Dixit (activist and writer), Ashish Gupta (IPS officer), Varun Santosh (Director, Governance Labs, Swaniti Initiatives).

One of the salient features of this initiative is that after the event, all the solutions discussed by the finalists would be concluded in a final draft and the draft would then be forwarded to relevant governmental such as Central Vigilence Commission as well as non-governmental agencies such as Avanti Fellows and Swaniti Initiatives. Apart from this, the event also promises to provide internships to the top speakers in Avanti Fellows, Deepalaya, Teach for India and Swaniti Initiatives.

A quite major question now apparent in the society these days is that have we really tried to bring a change in the system that we always wanted? Instead of just saying that 'Is system ka kuchh nahi ho sakta', have we even tried to bring a positive change in ourselves? The students of IIT Kanpur conducted a survey among more than 700 students from all over the country and found that the youth is now ready to brainstorm over the major problems Be it passing of the Lokpall bill, naxalism or judicial bias, it is now strongly apparent that the youth has a lot to express and if given a proper platform, it would surely play a major role in revolutionizing the country. Techkriti'13 just provides such a platform to these people to come and express themselves in front of the whole country.

So far the participants have been evaluated through 3 preliminary rounds. First Round was the submission of an online questionnaire in which the general awareness of the participants was tested. The second round was submission of two essays - 1 long and 1 short. In the long essay the participants were asked to express what actions/policies/strategies would they undertake to deal with the problems persisting in their state if they were the chief minister of their state. The short essay required the participants to express their views and solutions to any 1 of the given 15 major problems in our country. The final event is set to take place on 15th and 16th March in Main Auditorium at IIT Kanpur during their technical festival, Techkriti'13.

We wish them good luck and hope that with a proper collaborative effort among the bright and fresh participants and the experienced and matured judges, '28 States' would help resolve the problems of the 'aam aadmi'.

Jai Hind!