The festival kickstarted on Saturday with a speech from Ashank Desai, Chief Managing Director (CMD) of Mastek, and founder member of NASSCOM. Students from around eight universities, including MIT Sloan, School of Management (US), National University of Singapore as well as universities from China and Canada took part in the events, modeled on the ancient management styles implemented by the emperors of India.

Shreyas Navare, student coordinator and head of the organisers’ team for the festival, said, “Management principles are nothing new in India. Our ancient emperors implemented them at every step, and we decided to bring back those age-old theories in today’s world.”

Events had accordingly been scheduled with participants having to play by the managerial theories of legendary strategists like Chanakya, Maharana Pratap and Chandragupta Maurya. These games, most organised during the two days of the festival, were supposed to be a test of instant thinking prowess and innovative managerial strategies.

“The games were a lot of fun, and extremely different. Instead of pouring over lengthy case studies, we were made to think on our feet. The experience has really been worthwhile,” said Gemhl Coi and Henry Vincent Jaury, participants from the National University of Singapore.