Roorkee: The Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee (IIT-R) celebrated its annual flagship event, ‘National Social Summit 2021’ virtually with much fanfare on 27-28 March 2021. The theme of this year’s event was ‘Envisioning Better Healthcare Evolution’ with an objective of developing and proposing solutions to real-world socio-medical problems and also celebrating the spirit of creating an impact and building a community of social enthusiasts.
The online event culminated with a valedictory speech by Mr. Ravi Singh (Founder and CEO, Khalsa Aid). It also saw participation from dignitaries including Dr. Roderico Ofrin (WHO representative to India), Dr. Raman Gangakhedkar (former Deputy Director, ICMR), Dr. Randeep Guleria (Director, AIIMS, Delhi), Prof. Ajit K. Chaturvedi (Director, IIT Roorkee), Prof. Manoranjan Parida, Deputy Director, IIT Roorkee) among others.
“Initiatives like National Social Summit 2021 make us believe that no matter what our professional backgrounds are or where we are from, as humans; we are constantly striving for humanitarian efforts for a better world. The concept of Khalsa Aid is a humanitarian concept where we feed everyone and treat everyone as equal. We come from an area of the world where our politics is different, but our faith in spirituality remains deep. Our job isn’t to judge human beings by their faith, but we judge them on the basis of their plight or situations. A human being is a human being and all human beings are good. If anyone wants to work for betterment, then we can support funding especially in rural areas for better hospitals, sanitation or environment-related issues,” said Mr. Ravi Singh, Founder and CEO, Khalsa Aid
The two-day cultural extravaganza witnessed robust dialogues and panel discussions on topics including- ‘The Uncharted Territory of Genetic Engineering’, ‘Preparing for the Next Pandemic’, ‘In search of Arogya-Swaraj’, ‘Should India legalize its Two-child Policy?’, ‘Building Back Better: a Path for Economic recovery’, online health workshops, activities and competitions like strat-a-thon, sociothon, case-study, treasure hunt, policy case competition, among others.
“Most human beings in the world are inherently good and this inspiring message from Mr. Ravi Singh will echo in our minds for times to come. This year, our NSS team has taken the event a notch higher by bringing out the importance of social outlook. We look at the issues like road safety, mental well-being, blood donation from a technical aspect but to be more effective we need to combine it with an effort to inculcate the right social values,” said Prof. Ajit K. Chaturvedi, Director, IIT Roorkee
This year, the event was organized under the patronage of UNESCO and NITI Aayog and in collaboration with WHO Country Office for India as the Knowledge and Technical partner, the Family Planning Association of India (FPAI), Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the Centre for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy (CDDEP).
“When we work in higher education institutes, we believe that all students are good and enter the classrooms with the same mindset. Initial steps are the most important because that’s when you decide your future path. These summits will be very useful and students with their spirit and enthusiasm will take things forward,” said Prof. Manoranjan Parida, Deputy Director, IIT Roorkee
Going a step forward this year, NSS IIT Roorkee dedicated the edition of its annual flagship event to the healthcare workers, including doctors, nurses, and all social service warriors, who are battling against the threat of Covid-19. Dr. Jyoti Joshi (South-Asia Head, CDDEP), Mr. Abhay Bang, (Social Activist), Prof. Shamika Ravi (Former Member, PM’s Economic Advisory Council), Ms. Sonali Swami (International Athlete, Asians Bronze Medalist), Dr. Indu Bhushan, Ex-CEO, Ayushman Bharat, among others were also present in the event.