ICON Part II

The first round was suppose take in the Seminar Hall of the institute. Sitting in that place as an audience (most of the times) for one year and now in the spotlight; it was a new experience all together.

We were formally welcomed for the event, explained all the rules and regulations etc etc. The first round was named "War of words" and it was designed to test us on our level of knowledge on current affairs, views on Indian economy and more importantly, communication skills.

This round was played as an institute team format. The first task was to pen down our thoughts as a team on 3 priority sectors for the Indian Government. Basically, we had to act as consultants to the Govt in which concrete steps and plan of action had to be given. All this had to be done in 15 minutes in written format. After submission, teams went in one by one to voice their opinions in 2 minutes. This was followed by Q&A session by the esteemed panel of judges.

Second leg of the round was called "Devil's advocate". Herein, a topic was picked up randomly for each team and then one person had to speak FOR it for 2 minutes, other one AGAINST for 2 minutes, then both will debate for 5 minutes and lastly, judges could ask questions. We were the first ones to go and got the topic "Should I-bankers be tried in criminal courts for siphoning off public funds". My team mate wanted to speak FOR it and I wanted to speak AGAINST the motion. The performance went fine till I was asked the last question about how ethically correct it was for a CEO to securitize his future before quitting on the expense of public money. Apparently, the judge was not really happy with my viewpoint and the debate extended for some time. Well, it was a good topic on speak on and I thanked my Macro Economics faculty and all the summer internship preparation for the same.

In the end, the results were announced. FMS won the round as a team and my teammate was adjudged the best speaker!

It was break time for all of us. This gave me time to catch up with more friends although for a short time. The ICON organising team introduced themselves over dinner (which was quite good) and we got ready for the next round...