How was your experience as a Fresher at IITD?
As a fresher, I had a great experience during my initial months. I already had a lot of friends from my coaching days, who were already at IIT Delhi, and they supported me a lot in making make my transition to college life very smooth. Initially, I was not very involved in some particular club or activity and usually enjoyed the college experience by interacting and making new friends. Later, I got involved in playing sports and was actively participating in hockey and athletics.
How’s your journey been till now at IITD?
Amazing. It has been an extraordinary experience for me to study at IITD. Most of my first year was spent participating in sports and playing hockey, and then in the second year, with the arrival of Covid, classes shifted online. And most of the second year just went in chilling at home. At the close of my second year, I was introduced to CAIC. I always had a slight inclination towards administrative roles, so I contested for the post of U.G. Convener of Electrical Dept. and I, fortunately, won by one vote, so the journey was going nice, and ever since the third year, my tenure has been great. I have worked with entire CAIC team for the new structure, apart from that, I never even imagined that I would even become the General Secretary, and now looking back, I feel that the journey has been incredible.
How did you learn about CAIC and what CAIC clubs have you been a part of?
I haven't been part of any CAIC club yet, but I attended the orientation of all the clubs, and after that, I felt that sports would suit me better, so I chose to devote my time there. About CAIC, I first heard the term by the end of the second year at the time of the U.G. Convener elections, so basically, at that time, I got to know about CAIC. After that, I got fully aware of the CAIC body, and it’s functioning.
When did you make up your mind to contest for GSec? What was your prime motivation for it?
As I mentioned before, my prime motivation was to work towards all-round development of the council. Currently, a lot of people are unaware about CAIC, and due to this, I felt there was a need to restructure the body. My ideas also resonated with those of the previous GSec, and how he has taken some steps and laid a path for this, such as setting standard metrics for the clubs and unifying them, because a lot of those function on their own terms which makes the process a bit haphazard.
What do you plan to do now that you’ve become the GSec?
Currently, we want people to know about CAIC and what exactly it does. The council's work is not known to most U.G. students, since most of our work is with P.G. students. Even many P.G. students don't know about CAIC, so I want to ensure that people know properly what CAIC is and what it does. We would be conducting orientations, to give people a proper understanding and working of the council. Restructuring the working of the body, is also one of the important tasks, as it would help in many ways.
What are the issues you expect to encounter in the offline semesters?
Mainly, in online semesters people didn’t know about much things so there weren’t any issues as most problems were solved at the convener level. But in offline mode, things are gonna be a little bit hectic, many PhD people have some important issues but they are some things that occur every year, so hopefully, everything will work around.
Many people don’t even know about CAIC and the work it does, what do you think about it?
There was a lack of orientation and seminars about the council to the new batches, which makes people usually aware a bit late of the body. And mostly, the first-year students don’t encounter many problems at the academic or administrative level, which gives them less exposure to the body. We are woking on mechanisms to increase the social media outreach andThere is an idea to establish a CAIC secretary in every hostel, which would help towards solving this issue.
Students often have issues regarding academics in the first year and they don’t know who to approach, especially the introverted ones, since there are no conveners among freshers and sophomores. How do you plan to change it?
There are two types of students, first, those students who are in different clubs have P.O.R. and stuff, they generally don't have any problem. The second type of students are those who don't open up easily and interact less. The main priority is the second type of students who are comparatively shy and introverted. So it becomes important to have impactful reach so that these students are also aware of the process and can avail themselves access to different resources and mechanisms.
Any insights about TRYST 2023, that you would like to share?
I can only promise that the second semester's midterm break will be well worth the wait.
What do you plan to do about recognising new tech clubs like ANCC and AIMLC?
In this or the next semester, as Dean (Acads) changes, we will have an EC meeting, where the official recognition will be proposed as part of the agenda. If their presentation goes well, and the Deans are on board, then definitely they’ll be a part of the CAIC.
What are the PG initiatives you have on your mind currency? Can you brief them?
PG is facing many monetary issues as of now. First is the contingency issue it's the money allotted to every PhD student for research purposes. The problem with it is that you can spend this money on a few specific things only. Even now there are restrictions like you can buy online courses but not pen drives, so we need to work over that. Apart from that, there are problems regarding scholarships, like some people have scholarships of five years, but due to covid, their degree now spans six years. We are trying that they get the scholarship from MHRD for their final year.
The last GSec presented about changes in CAIC structure with the new structure of reps and DGSecs, are you thinking on similar lines too?
Ya, I am thinking on similar lines, there is very much need for the restructuring of CAIC, there is one GSec handling a lot of things so things get a little bit messy. Therefore we really wish to bring two DGSec, one for handling Acads and the other for Co-curricular and clubs activity and the two will report to the GSec.
Any message for our audience?
I want that students know more about the different student bodies and councils that are there on campus for them. They should know how much they can influence the things on campus. For example, currently, there’s a curriculum review going on which takes place every 10 years or so in which you can pretty much get anything changed such as getting design credits removed, new courses being introduced, etc. So as a General Secretary, I wish that the students approach their corresponding representatives with more ideas which they believe would be beneficial for all.
Interview By : Rajat Golechha
Design By : Prisha Jain, Shivam Jhanwar