On January 9 and 10, the Harvard US-India Initiative hosted is Annual Conference in New Delhi, with support from SAI.
Keynote speakers included Piyush Goyal, Hon’ble Minister of State with Independent Charge for Power, Coal and New & Renewable Energy in the Government of India, Mirai Chatterjee, Director of Social Security, SEWA, and Shri Jairam Ramesh, MP Rajya Sabha, former Cabinet Minister.
HUII is an undergraduate student-run organization at Harvard that aims to create dialogue between Indian and American youth to address some of India’s most pressing social, economic, and environmental issues today.
Below is an excerpt from a report on the conference:
“If yesterday’s events urged participants to immerse themselves in the world of ideas, today’s panelists gave us diverse and exceptional examples of how to apply these ideas in practice. We explored the treatment of women from the womb to the workplace on the Girl Child and Yes Ma’am panels. We discussed the ethics and efficacy of the nonprofit world in several of our afternoon sessions. Our keynote speaker this morning, Mirai Chatterjee, gave us an eye-opening presentation on the detail and planning that is involved in the roll out of universal healthcare. Our discourse today was characterized by representation from different areas of the public sphere, yet each of the panelists placed a certain conscious emphasis on creating value.
Yet, in every sphere— public and private, urban and rural, conservative and liberal—today’s presenters stressed the importance of assigning value to what we do. As our country enjoys greater importance on an international stage, we must look to development of our own social consciousness in every sphere. In India, a country that shelters one-fifth of humanity, the narrative that our generation crafts cannot be the narrative of our forefathers—we simply cannot afford it. The cost of moving forward without attention paid to our conscience and moral growth is too heavy for our society, government and even economy to bear.” – Zeenia Framroze, Harvard College’15
View the full report.
Highlights from Twitter:
Harvard US India Initiative was the best thing to happen to me !! pic.twitter.com/dY6HbDYGKh
— Archna Yadav (@archnaysblog) January 12, 2015
provocative and enlightening two days at HUII 2015, with accomplished personalities from all walks of life #harvard_us_india_initiative
— AAKANKSHA MIRDHA (@mirdhaaakanksha) January 12, 2015
Pearls of wisdom – integrity, competence and diversity – from Jayant Sinha’s at #HUII15.
— Aakash Aggarwal (@aakashsays1) January 10, 2015
Jayant Sinha : Final keynote The only bad thing about good things is that – It comes to an end – final day at #huii15 pic.twitter.com/ZnLXDRb1Tv
— Sunit Jain (@Dhoklebaaz) January 10, 2015
Attended @Harvard initiative in Delhi. Interesting dialogue with youngsters from all over #India. Zara Vakil great team effort
“Change is the name of the game” Jairam Ramesh today at Harvard US India Initiative.
— Surbhi Arora (@surbheeee) January 9, 2015
Ideas are bullet proof says one of the speakers (Gautam Patel). Frees speech is not about comfort or conformity. #HUII15
— nikhil dey (@deydreaming) January 9, 2015