Theme: Are We Asking The Right Questions?

Without curiosity, wonder, inquisitiveness, where would we be? It takes a flashlight to search, a microscope to look, a key to unlock a door. To find information, to find ideas worth spreading, someone needs to first ask.

Questions have power; they form the very basis upon which new ideas are generated and can be shared. But in a world oversaturated with information, how do we find what we’re actually looking for? How do we know that our questions have answers and are not shouts into the void? How can we turn the searchlight inward, point the microscope at ourselves? How can we challenge the accepted till we accept an explanation? It’s in the hope of examining our approach to seeking information that the theme for TEDxYouth@DAIS 2021 was chosen:

Are we asking the right questions?

Virtual TEDxYouth@DAIS 2021 featured six speakers across diverse fields, from theatre to economics to sports who explored new lenses from which to view the world and shared unique ideas with DAIS students, staff, and alumni. Members of the audience not only gained the chance to reflect on their perspectives, but also got to engage with the speakers in thought-provoking question and answer sessions.

Microsoft Teams Platform
The event was held virtually
Mumbai, Maharashtra, 400036
India

Adille Sumariwalla

President of the Athletics Federation of India

Mr Adille Sumariwalla is an Olympic sprinter who represented India at the 1980 Moscow Olympics and is the recipient of 20 National Gold Medals and 17 International Medals for the 100 metre dash, in addition to the prestigious Arjuna Award. He has also coached several award-winning athletes. Currently, he is the President of the Athletics Federation of India and was elected as a Council Member of World Athletics in 2015, becoming the first Indian to receive this honour. His entrepreneurial foray into media resulted in newspaper, advertising and FM radio businesses. He is currently the Founder & MD of InterSpace Communications.

Monika Halan

Personal finance writer, speaker, and media personality

Mrs Halan is a personal finance writer, speaker, and media personality, who has run several TV segments about personal finance with NDTV, Zee, and Bloomberg in addition to working with prestigious publications such as Mint, The Economic Times and The Indian Express. She is also the best-selling author of a book, Let’s Talk Money, and an Adjunct Professor at the Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs. Notably, Mrs Halan has worked with the Indian Government on several occasions, in the Ministry of Finance Committee on Incentives, the SEBI Mutual Fund Advisory Committee and in the capacity of an advisor to the Swarup Committee in 2009.

Neil Satra

Product Manager at Google

Neil is currently working as a product manager at Google in California. His journey started at Entrepreneur First, where he designed Magi Metrics, a software for analytics and reporting. A computer scientist by degree, he designed and led the instruction of a Web Development course for participants ranging from high school students to Cambridge researchers to prospective Computer Science teachers as a Course Director at the Cambridge Coding Academy.

Shailesh Kumar

Chief Data Scientist at the Centre of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence Machine Learning at Reliance Jio

Dr Shailesh Kumar is the Chief Data Scientist at the Centre of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence Machine Learning at Reliance Jio. As one of the top data scientists and Artificial Intelligence experts in India, he has worked as a data scientist at Ola cabs, as a researcher at Google Brain and Yahoo! Labs, and as a principal developer at Microsoft. He also co-founded an EdTech company, Third Leap, which incorporates artificial intelligence into learning. In addition to this, Dr Kumar has published over 20 international research papers, holds more than 20 patents in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, and was recognised as one of the top 10 Indian data scientists in 2015 by Analytics India Magazine.

Vijai Singh

Vice President of Reliance Foundation Ltd

Colonel VP Singh is one of the founding members of Dhirubhai Ambani International School and its first School Administrator. He has served for over two decades in the Indian Army, during the 1965 and 1971 Wars. In 1971 he was involved in the construction of the longest bridge ever made in war over the Madhumati River in Bangladesh. His stint in the army was followed by a 35-year corporate and education second innings. Colonel VP Singh has taken on numerous roles from being an Olympian in Munich in 1972 to the Organizing Secretary of the 1985 National Games Yachting events. He’s a Himalayan car rally driver, biker, marathon runner, cyclist, traveller, dirt biker, and even an avid photographer with over 1 crore views on Google Maps!

Vrinda Das

Student at Dhirubhai Ambani International School

The arts have been a big part of Vrinda’s exploration of social issues around the world, especially feminism and gender expression. She has used her exploration of gender through the arts to get involved in matters of policy and representation. Working closely with the transgender community in India, she has advocated to improve their status as a national minority within spheres of policy. As an aspiring film-history student, she hopes to create lasting change through the arts.