Techkriti is the Annual Technology and Entrepreneurship Festival of IIT Kanpur. This year IIT Kanpur shall be presenting Techkriti in association with GE from 27^th to 30^th January. Since its very inception, it has given platform for students to showcase their talents and we are proud to say that this platform is getting bigger and better over the years. It has repeatedly satisfied the creative appetite of students and has been a source of novel solutions to many socio-economic and scientific problems of our times.

This year we have gone out of our way to fulfill our role in the society and to help in every way however small it may seem. This year we shall be conducting over 40 workshops all across India to spread technical expertise and entrepreneurial acumen amongst the youth of the country. We are also launching an event to help solve a problem, the choice of which is with the participants, faced by the masses on the Indian Society through technology. SocCon: The Social Conquest – has been launched as a flagship event of Techkriti’12 and we have received over 100 entries. This move has been firmly supported by the Administration and we have received special guidance from Dr. A.K. Ghosh, our Dean of Students’ Affairs. Recognizing the need to spread and support new ideas, Techkriti is organizing IDEAS - The business plan competition with support from E-Cell IIT Kanpur. This event boasts of associating major organizations like Dell Social Innovation Challenge, National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN), Indian Angels Network (IAN), Nurture Talent Academy, The Indus Entrepreneurship (TIE), National Social Entrepreneurship Forum (NSEF), Flamingo Venture and many more. The ideas will be judged by an elite panel comprising of people like Mr. Ajay Sood (Vice President, Ericsson India ), Mukul Singhal (Vice President, SAIF Partners), Badri Seshadri (Co-Founder and Managing Director, Cricinfo) amongst others. Also to help the Education delivery system we are hosting an event Eduvate wherein participants must develop an app or a game to help explain key concepts to school students.

Understanding our responsibility towards the environment we are going to launch a plantation drive, wherein we shall plant about 500 trees. The aim is to implement this in 3 stages. This is aimed as being the first step towards making Techkriti, India’s first Carbon Positive Festival. In line with this we are conducting a competition - Green Media which aims at developing a poster/clip/software or any medium to help even the most naive common man understand the environmental concerns

We are also collaborating with other associations to create a reputed platform for students to showcase their talent. Our Programming Contest IOPC – International Online Programming Contest last year saw a huge International participation. 6 out of the top 10 teams were from outside India. We have also associated with the World Cube Association to conduct IORC – Indian Open Rubik’s Cube so that the timings here will be accepted worldwide and any record made here would hold in all countries. Similarly we will be collaborating with Indian Puzzle Championship to conduct the regional round of their puzzle competition during Techkriti. We are also being provided the cases for Battlefield – The Case study Competition by Harvard Business Review which shall take the event to a new level altogether

Techkriti offers huge rewards and incentives to the participants. This year there are prizes worth 25 lakh INR up for grabs apart from chances to get an internship at startups and even established companies like Facebook. This year we have strengthened the Industry Academia bond even further by bringing in problem statements from the industry and trying to get them solved here and by making the students more aware of what is going on in the industry. We are having close associations with GE, Facebook, IBM, ITC, Boeing, Ericsson, Direct-I, T-Labs, J.K.White Cement etc. We have also collaborated with foreign government supported bodies from France, Holland, United Kingdom, Singapore, Switzerland and many more

Techkriti also has the motto of promoting technology, scientific thinking and innovation and we aim to exhibit and promote cutting edge technology of before the society. All throughout the 4 days we shall be having talks by visionaries and masters of their respective fields. In the past many Nobel Laureates, Field Medalists CEOs and Venture Capitalists have graced us with their presence. We shall soon be declaring the speakers for this year but be prepared to quench your thirst for knowledge and be filled with inspiration. We also have a panel discussion by Indian Innovators. Innovatos who have targetted and tackled problems concerning the common man in India through their ingenuity will be the panelists. Apart from them we shall be displaying the most technologically advanced products in our Tech-Planet which shall be our exhibition centre. We have confirmed exhibitions from all over the world including Asia-Pacific, Europe, Americas and even Australia. This year for the first time you shall also witness an in-house exhibition where the intra IIT reserach and projects will be showcased. All in all you will be able to find the most novel products of this time here at IIT Kanpur, under one Tech Planet during Techkriti. A new flagship initiative, Entrepreneurship Enclave provides golden opportunity for all to learn perspectives and skills for being an entrepreneur under a single umbrella. Brief interesting talks will be given by young, successful entrepreneurs followed by panel discussions of the venture capitalists after which we will have a presentation of their products.

With all the things set we shall be launching our online competitions soon and are all geared up for a amazing Techkriti’12 and we invite you to witness this technical and entrepreneurial bonanza.