XLRI hosts its 8th Edition of TEDxXLRI

The XLRI- Xavier School of Management, Jamshedpur, recently hosted the 8th Edition of TEDxXLRI virtually. The theme for this year’s TEDxXLRI was “Surviving the Storm.”

The event had eminent speakers from different walks of life come together on a single platform to talk about how they defied all odds and storms in their personal and professional lives and emerged victorious. The event began with a musical performance by singer Praniti Khanna aka. Peekay.

Sarah Hussain opened up about her journey to become one of the youngest and most successful food bloggers of India, encouraging students to take the road less travelled, focus on their hobbies and turn passions into professions.

Aditya Gupta, an IIT Roorkee & FMS Delhi alumnus, founder of three successful startups and an ace mountaineer shared his story of scaling Mt. Everest at the age of 50 and further elaborated on how the valuable lessons learned during the summit will also help in the corporate world. He taught the audience how to use their emotions such as fear and anxiety to one’s benefits.

Dhaval Jain, President’s Gold Medal-winning IAS officer, spoke about the challenges faced while handling the COVID-19 crisis in Howrah, West Bengal, and the changes he has been able to bring through his work. His experiences helped students to understand the intricacies involved in managing a crisis and how aspects like – effective leadership, problem-solving, collaboration and keeping human resources and the community motivated to play a huge role in it.

Actor Amit Behl’s talk centered around the media and the entertainment industry, the recent storms it faced, and how it is undergoing a drastic transformation over the years. While answering a question, he also stated why he believes OTT platforms are a positive disruption for the Indian movie and television industry as the focus has now turned to creating quality content.

Tanmaya Jain, founder & CEO of A.I. startup, inFeedo focused on the need and importance of mental health, how social media deteriorates it and how vipassana helped him deal with his issues and achieve mental fitness. The last speaker of the evening, Deepika Kumari, archer and Padma Shri-winner, shed light on her life journey and emphasised how poverty can either make people helpless or give them the courage to deal with storms. "Poverty is a situation that can either make you brave or miserable," she recounted. “Dreams are not meant only for the rich. Anyone can dream. I still dream. And to fulfil those dreams, I left home. My dreams kept getting bigger. My performance kept getting better. Sometimes life gives you more than what you can handle, but if you face it, nothing will be impossible,” she added.