People say that when one debuts with a blog one should act like a starling who is debuting that is with a light, fun filled, comically inclined topic which the audiences can easily digest and if the project is a disaster then easily forgettable and forgivable.
But i would like to take the path less trodden. I believe in the philosophy high risk high gain no matter how much the pain. This post looks at the problem which every creative student in college faces- the paucity of funds.
Its usual in college to come across students who have big ideas about this or that event where they can showcase their technical prowess through some project but can't due to paucity of funds.
These students run pillar to post of every corporate office, retailing shops and government offices. These students always run about yelling that i need a big amount to fund their project but cannot find any sponsor to bear their expenses. I always wondered how big that amount really is? When i asked a few people who work on such projects they told me that its in range of a few lakhs, usually 2-3 lakhs for a big ticket project and around lakh for a small one . When i heard such big figures i fell off my seat, figuratively speaking, as i have never seen that much money in my life as i am yet a student.
Now almost all the students would agree that such amounts are huge and one should always look for a corporate sponsor and if one is unable to rope in a corporate sponsor then one should abandons one's plan for the projects. I say NO. If we look at the problem closely then its not much about lack of money but rather lack of insight.
Lets see. A group usually involves 6-7 people who need 2-3 lakhs as their expenditure. Lets take 6 people with an expenditure of 2 lakhs for clarity. That means each student has to bear approx 34K. Now as it usually is half the students belong to middle class families with income in the range of 20K-40K per month and the other half to the income group of 40k to 60k per month. now if we discount the people in the former group, the people in the latter group have parents who have some savings which they can spare. Now some readers may think that i am pointing towards asking the parents to lend all their savings in a tricky venture which will not have any returns. No thats not my case. I suggest that students who believe in themselves can approach their parents for loans. Yup to disbelief of many, loans from your own parents. The students can approach their parents to loan them the sum at bank rates which hovers at 10% per year compounded annually. As most of the students take up such ventures in third year, it will be like a two years loan. After two years a 34k, after a bit of number crunching one can see, will amount to just 41k at 10%ROI. I would like to point out that 41K is just a bit over the starting salary of an average engineer and hence can be paid of easily in 2-3 months. To safeguard the money involved this dealing can be registered in court too to give it a legal validity.
Now isn't this a simple idea. It safeguards the parents money, give them an assured return which is more than the return on a fixed deposit in a bank and most importantly gives life to an idea which may one day change the world. But till this idea catches on i wish the students best of luck in running from pillor to post hankering after people for funds. And for those who can make sense of the concept happy project building.
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2 comments:
Nice post.... Good start!!!! But if this post was to appear in CAT '07 as an RC, and if there was a question asking about an appropriate title for the passage, which of the following options would you mark?
(1) Why do students always lack sponsorship?
(2) Sponsorship worries: Easy solution
(3) Sponsorship... Surely not an obstacle
(4) Sponsorship... Not a dead end
(5) Sponsorship... Not a good enough dead end!
if the passage was to appear in cat07
and i were to choose an appropriate title then i would be stuck between 2nd and 3rd options. and as kumar sir said run if in a dilemma, i would have surely run away!!
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