Group of mentors remained a vital element of Ideathon – Hack The Innovative Future

VARANASI: A team of mentors, mostly Japanese professionals, and entrepreneurs assisted the touring youngsters from Japan and India during the 9-day long journey from Delhi to Varanasi as part of the venture-based Ideathon- Hack the Innovative Future.

These experienced mentors were in touch with the touring youngsters not only from Sep 16 when the Ideathon began but much before, and on September 2 also when they conducted online orientation with all youths from India and Japan together. Even on the final day of the event at Varanasi, these mentors only handed over the awards to their team members who were divided in 10 groups of 4 youths each – two girls and two boys from Japan and India each.

Later during the travel, they helped the budding minds to nurture the latter’s ideas, help them identify gap areas and concerns,  grow their skills, make them take better decisions, and helped them gain new perspectives on their life and career, not only throughout the journey but also while making the final presentation of their journey at the International Cooperation and Convention Centre (ICCC) – Rudraksh at Varanasi where they stayed for three days.

Kohsuke Kumagai, Ms. Aparna Ramkumar, both from Mitsubishi, Takashi Akiba from Sumitomo, Ms. Madoka Horio from Okaya Kouki, Rahul Gupta from All Nippon Airways (ANA), Ms. Akari Oda from Japan Embassy formed three teams of mentors and travelled with the 20 youngsters from Japan and India during the 900-km long stretch.

According to Ms. Aparna the decision to select mentors in the age group of 23-29 was strategically made to make the touring youngsters comfortable. She said “These youths from Japan and India divided in 10 teams of 4 members each were very comfortable with their mentors as the age group of both were no too distant. This was a very good idea to give them a peer group feeling throughout the journey.”

Mentor Kohsuke Kumagai, who joined Mitsubishi in 2017 has been to India before also, and learnt Hindi language also while his term at Delhi University in 2018-19, and hence he was well versed with the Indian conditions. Kumagai said he had been waiting for this kind of event for a very long, and wished that in the year 2052 when both the countries would be celebrating the 100th anniversary of their diplomatic relations, he would be proudly leading Ideathon during that time.

The challenge among the mentors was not restricted to they effectively guiding and handholding the youth but otherwise too.

Mentor Ms. Madoka Horio from Okaya Kouki is from Hiroshima, and she paired with Kumagai to take care of 4  teams was happy to share an unusual experience about the participating youths. She said that one of the youth claimed in the beginning that he would turn out to be a troublemaker during the journey from Delhi to Varanasi. However, it was not the case later as the same youth was very cooperative, and exhibited very good qualities of leadership as well.

Jokyu an entrepreneur turned monk from Tokyo and Ono Hirofumoi a serial entrepreneur from Tokyo, and three Japanese professionals joined online from India (Bengaluru and Hyderabad) also assisted them in making presentations, etc.

Jokyu who was on an India visit for two weeks owns a long experience of producing IoT devices in Japan, and once made Kukoo Clocks for his ailing and lonely mother. It was made in such a way that the moment his mother would touch the smartphone, the Kukoo bird would create a sound to alert Jokyu.

Jokyu helped the youths with issues such as food wastage, traffic snarls, gender bias/women employment, human rights and unemployment.

Related article: Team Mirai of Japanese and Indian youth project Japan as a solution to unemployment in India, wins 1st award: Ideathon – Hack the Innovative Future

Another mentor Ono Hirofumoi from Japan helped the youths identify the problems and the root causes behind these problems. He told the youths that the technology might help them in their endeavors.

Ms. Takashi Akiba from Sumitomo said that most of the Japanese youths were traveling to India for the first time and initially they were very shy and reserved to themselves.

“But later these youths turned very forthcoming, interacting, questioning and cooperative too. They spotted concerns such as roadside dumping of garbage and absence of segregation. These youths also asked many questions about agriculture too. My job was to support and nurture their ideas, not control them. They are very smart and intelligent, which I was not when I was 20-year old.

The pairing of mentors was very strategically done by the organisors as they selected Indian as well as Japanese natives to supporting the touring youths. Rahul Gupta from All Nippon Airways (ANA), was not only actively involved with the Indian youths but also with the Japanese ones too. He said it was a very exciting experience of his life being a mentor for the budding minds and guiding them.

Ms. Akari Oda from the Embassy of Japan help the youths in addressing the problem of solid waste segregation. “The students from Japan were amazed to see just two waste bins in India – the blue and green, whereas the number of bins that are used for waste segregation are eight separate for type of waste such as plastic, pet bottles, cans, paper, combustible, non- combustible etc. Japanese youths revealed this to their Indian friends, and offered the solutions,” said Ms. Oda.