Make Calcutta Relevant Hosts “The CCU Festival”-A Distinctive Initiative To Restore Kolkata’s Lost Glory
Kolkata, October, 2022: Timed closely with the advent of winter in this part of the country, Make Calcutta Relevant Again hosted the first edition of The CCU Festival. The brainchild of Mr Meghdut Roychowdhury, Founder of ‘Make Calcutta Relevant Again’ & Chief Innovation Officer, Techno India Group, and Ms Pauline Laravoire, Co-Founder & CEO, Y-East, & Sustainability Director, Techno India Group,aimed at creating a creative and disruptive platform that showcases the uniqueness of the state while attempting to revive and even surpass its lost glory in many areas.
The inaugural session of The CCU Festival at Taal Kutir Convention Centre, Eco Tourism Park commenced with a Dance Performance by Chhou dancers. The inauguration was addressed by Mr Debasish Sen, IAS (Retd),Chairman, NKDA and Managing Director, WBHIDCO; Mr Joydeep Karmakar, Olympian, Chief National Rifle Coach Of India, Prof. Manoshi Roychowdhury, Co-Chairperson, Techno India Group and Neel Bhattacharya, Actor.
“Kolkata is infused with real time cases of innovation, sports, good living, artand culture in all imaginable fields. ‘Make Calcutta Relevant Again’ is proud to curate and launch The CCU Festival that endeavours to revive the lost glory of Calcutta by shining a light on stories that the world should sit up and take notice of. It is an attempt to celebrate Calcutta like never before and discover new icons across disciplines. It will give young people a reason to love the city for what it is. This type of multidisciplinary festival has never happened before in the city. Moreover, it is a fully collaborative festival. We are thankful to all the dignitaries who are here today and to the sponsors who have put their faith to support this initiative. The response that we have received for this initiative is very encouraging and we would make the second edition even bigger”, said Mr Meghdut Roychowdhury, Founder of ‘Make Calcutta Relevant Again’ & Chief Innovation Officer, Techno India Group.
“We are hosting 14 events in the span of 16 hours at a go. For example, the creators’ segment brings together 500 creators under the same roof to foster national level discussion. Also, Eighty investors from across the country, includingUpSparks, Antennae Ventures, Anthill, Antler,Kalaari Capital, ARC Group, Hyderabad Angels, The Chennai Angels, Madwadi Catalysts, Veda. vc, StartupXseed, Astir Ventures, N+1 Captial, Lead Angels, Inflexor Ventures, Bajaj VC, Founder’s Room Capital, Connexdoor, Westbridge Capital, 1stCheque by Favcy, Fluid Ventures Fund, NITI Aayog, Razorpay, Varanium Capital, Alter Global, SBRI INDUSTRIES, Lets Venture, Asha Ventures, Digital Futurists Angels Network (DFAN), ICICI Lombard, ITI Growth Opportunities Fund, Verlinvestand Veda.vcamongst others, who have never come to Calcutta before, are present to evaluate and assess entrepreneurialventures. Another distinct part of the event will be the launch of‘Moving Kolkata, Kolkata Moving’ Project, an EU-funded project especially powered by EUNIC Global, European Spaces of Culture, and further supported and implemented by the Embassy of Spain in India, Instituto Cervantes, the Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Kolkata, General Consulates of Germany and Italy, Alliance Française, British Council and Y-East.These international partners have specially come here to celebrate Kolkata, particularly from the angle of sustainability in the city”, said and Ms Pauline Laravoire, Co-Founder & CEO, Y-East, & Sustainability Director, Techno India Group.
There are six conventions at The CCU Festival. For each of the selected conventions there are 3 awards, celebrating Kolkata’shistory,the present and the future. It will be recognition for a personality or organisation who has made Kolkata relevant in the past, one who is making Kolkata relevant now and yet anotherone who has the potential of making Kolkata relevant in future.
The events that are being held at The CCU Festival are FLOPTCH(Day-long deal flows and start-up exhibition), MRKT (all-day flea market featuringcurated Local and national brands), CCU GOT SOUL(all-day live music, busking and comedy bringing life to MRKT and the Festival), BLUPRNT (Design Convention for designs that touch and change life), BUIDL (Web3 Convention to plunge into new technology universes), JAMSTEADY LIVE(Music by top local, national andinternational artists), CYPHER (Live performances from local Hip-Hop artists and Beatboxers), MOTOR CORTEX (Audio-visual electronic dance music experience ft. national and international DJs), MKKM (Sustainability Convention to shed light on sustainable urban solutions), CLOUT (First-of-its-kind Content Creators Convention),FLOW (The Fitness Convention),DSRPT (Innovation Convention to leverage the latest trends and most innovative brands and talents) and FINE DINE (Invite-only VIP Networking Dinner).
The CCU Festival is supported by TaalKutir Convention Centre as their venue partner and Make Calcutta Relevant Again.
About Make Calcutta Relevant Again:
Young people in Calcutta are eager to build something new #MakeCalcuttaRelevantAgain, helps them do that. Under the initiative, sponsorships are provided to upcoming creators and they are supported to showcase their work with top-notch mentors and industry experts who help them take their creations to the next level. The aim is to bring back Calcutta’s Glory, to build a new, optimistic narrative for the city, and to take it to the next level through constant disruption and innovation.
