Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Technology (FET), Manav Rachna International Institute of Research and Studies (MRIIRS) organized an Expert Talk and Essay Competition on “The Challenges faced by Indian Democracy: then and now” under “Azadi ka Amrut Mahotsav: Celebration of India’s 75 years of Independence” recently.

The speaker of the talk was Col. Vijay Jain, a retired Corps of Engineers officer and an alumni of Indian Military Academy, Dehradun. He joined IMA in 1986 and was commissioned into 105 Engineer Regiment on December 19, 1987. He completed B. Tech in Civil Engineering from NIT Jamshedpur and M. Tech in Quality Management from BITS Pilani. Col. Jain has been giving motivational talks from past two years in various engineering colleges to join Indian Army.

Col. Vijay Jain delivered his talk on India’s road to freedom and independence. The talk progressed with the importance of democracy in the Indian society and how one should value freedom. He gave an informative talk regarding the process of joining the Indian Army and the glory one must feel after wearing the army uniform. The overall session was quite interesting and was concluded by Col. Jain by reciting one of his poetry: “Sabr”. This expert talk had an audience not only from the Department of Civil Engineering, but also from other departments of FET also.

After the talk was over, the results of the essay competition were announced. Amongst many entries and participations, top three students were chosen for 1st, 2nd and 3rd positions respectively.

The session concluded with a Vote of Thanks by Dr. Sunita Bansal.