Techfest RTI awareness campaign workshop at ITER

Odisha Channel Bureau Bhubaneswar, Sep 17: Techfest will organise a two-day RTI awareness campaign workshop at the Institute of Technical Education and Research (ITER) in Bhubaneswar on September 18 and 19.The campaign is a national outreach program, to make government more accountable, and to make youth aware about RTI and its uses, where Techfest will reach out to more than 50 colleges in 20 cities throughout the nation.The campaign at ITER will constitute a workshop on online and offline filling of an RTI by Pradeep Pradhan, a leading RTI activist from the city of Bhubaneswar.The workshop will be held on September 18 from 12 PM to 2 PM.The workshop then will be followed by an event where through following easy steps, a student will learn how easy it is to fill an RTI application.Techfest has also collaborated with NCPRI (National Campaign for Peoples’ Right to Information) to make the event successful.On the line of its Anti-Smoking Campaign ISMOKE last year, Techfest this edition launched an RTI Awareness Campaign by the name of ASK (Anxious? Seek Know) aiming to make government more accountable to the citizens.The campaign was launched at FC Kohli Auditorium in IIT Bombay on August 15, 2014.Logo and name was revealed by Shailesh Gandhi, former Information Commissioner with Central Information Commission), and Bhaskar Prabhu, convenor of NCPRI, while the website was launched by actress Prachi Desai.The campaign has also the support of Nikhil Dey, Anjali Bhardwaj, Venkatesh Nayak and Subhash Agarwal.Born in 1998 with the motto of promoting technology, scientific thinking and innovation, Techfest has surpassed 17 golden years of creating an unmatched aura of a science and technology spectacle year after year at the campus of IIT Bombay at Powai, Mumbai.Today it is well established as Asia’s largest science and technology festival, with more than 135,000 people in attendance and a reach of over 2,500 colleges across India and over 500 overseas in its most recent edition.In its endeavour to provide an international platform to the youth to showcase their talents and skill sets in fierce competitions, display cutting edge technology and research from all over the globe, have world renowned personalities motivate the youth and promote solutions to alleviate the common man of his banal yet significant problems, Techfest strives for one and all to get inspired and look up to.