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Focusing on the legal system of the country and the fact that there are 33 million pending court cases in the country and on an average a High Court Judge spends around 3.33 minutes on one face, lawyer and mediation advocate Jonathon Rodrigues, the first speaker at TEDxPanaji 2019 advocated for Multi-door Dispute Resolution System and Second Legal Opinion (SLO). The co-founder of the Peacekeeping and Conflict Resolution Team (PACT) opined that every case need not be fought in the court as there are other solutions. He suggested that it is less stressful, much cheaper and has no paper work.
Known for the free flow of ideas and thoughts by eminent speakers who share their own experiences with the world, 14 brilliant speakers, including Jonathan, kept the audience engaged for the entire day at Kala Academy. The event began with a musical note and also ended musically.
A dhol-taasha fusion band ‘Yuva de Shiroda’ displayed a welcoming performance to warm up the audience and prepare them to the brainstorming sessions. After getting a dose of legal system, the audience got a ray of light through a talk by the professor at IIT Bombay, Dr Chetan Solanki, one of the promoters of solar energy in the country shared his own experiences of studying under a kerosene lamp, and how today he has provided one million solar lamps to students in 10,000 villages in a year through Solar Urja Lamp (SoUL) Programme. This year on October 2, he will commence the Gandhi Global Solar Yatra to sensitize young minds, hands-on training for more than one million Students Solar Ambassadors (SSA) across the globe. When author and poet Frederika Menezes (who is diagnosed with cerebral palsy and who is wheelchair bound all her life) stated, “I always dreamed of being on stage and here I am,” the audience gave a standing ovation. Then the 13-year-old speed-cuber, Affan Kutti, solved the alphabetic cube for the audience blindfolded. Kutti, who is now trying for Limca Book of Records for doing such fete, stated that one can get rid of any addiction by believing in self and having a positive attitude.
Biophysicist Roop Malik spoke about the nano particles inside living cells and how they impact our lives. These molecular motor proteins generate every conceivable motion that’s going on inside our body and thus poor-functioning of them can cause various diseases. Fitness consultant and social media influencer, Diksha Chhabra spoke about her journey from weighing 98 kgs and suffering from PCOD to become a fitness expert now and also winning Mrs India Earth title. The talk focused on how women especially mothers should focus on themselves first in order to have a healthy family. Industrial designer, Deepak Pathania who makes science learning fun with DIY videos, states that now is the time for TIY (Think It Yourself) videos and one must learn and understand the science by doing experiments and not just reading about them in Science textbooks.
One of the Goa’s first IAS officers, Ashutosh A T Pednekar who is currently serving as secretary and commissioner “ Panchayati Raj, relief and civil defence “ government of Rajasthan, spoke on how he changed the public transport system in the industrial town of Alwar by starting Alwar Vahini -- mini passenger public transport service in Alwar. “It brought down not only pollution and congestion in the city but also got rid of old 750 three-wheeler rickshaws. We focused on improving road infrastructure and overall decongestion of the city. Now this model is being followed in other cities also,” he shared.
Game developer and peace activist, Greg Acuna spoke about the games which he started in the town of Gujarat that focuses on community development and where every participant is a winner.
Sanskrit scholar Dr Sampadananda Mishra spoke about Sanskrit and how this language is always evolving and which is context specific. He concluded with a sentence in Sankrit, which if you read left to right is the story of Ram and when you read right to left is the story of Krishna.
The 18-year-old Mohammed Suhail Chinya Salimpasha, who was recently awarded Pradhan Mantri Bala Shakthi Puraskar for pioneering breakthrough technology for diagnosing pre-symptomatic protein-energy malnutrition by using paper explained of this painless, non-invasive, rapid, inexpensive test which doesn’t generate bio-medical waste.
The talk by co-founder, Gegadyne energy, Jubin Varghese, spoke on the battery which they have developed for electric vehicles that can charge to 100 per cent, in under 15 minutes and are also eco-friendly! Designer and writer Wendell Rodricks spoke about his journey from a small chawl in Mumbai to owning a heritage house in Colvale, by just following his dream. “One should not forget their roots, aspire to be good internationally and always take time to do something good for the society,” stated Wendell who also briefed on his project Moda Goa Museum.
Musician Anuja Kamat stated, “Even though we believe that language of music is universal, it has its own language and it goes beyond composition. It has its own aesthetics, beauty, grammar and philosophy.”
The event also had Start-up Zone, where business start-ups from Goa were showcased; an Experience Zone, curated by the team of TEDxPanaji along with the Goa State Biodiversity Board, where some unique Goan ideas were showcased like weaving of mat from a wild grass by a group of women from Quepem and also making of products like hats and broom from the palms of coconut tree.
There were also stalls on various farming practices in Goa like Aquaponics, organic farming, etc. The stall by Terra Conscious focused creating awareness about marine life of Goa and how to travel responsibly. The Goa State Biodiversity Board generated fair amount of crowd as exhibited the variety of fruits and vegetables from Goa and also gave information about the natural heritage of Goa and need to document it with People’s Biodiversity Register (PBR).
There was also a section on robotics and IOT, with a focus on agriculture and much more. The lead organizer of TEDxPanaji, Dattaprasad Shetkar gave a vote of thanks.
