Make Calcutta Relevant Again held the inaugural CCU Festival as it coincided with the arrival of winter in this region of the country. The initiative, which was the brainchild of Mr. Meghdut Roychowdhury, founder of “Make Calcutta Relevant Again” and chief innovation officer of Techno India Group, and Ms. Pauline Laravoire, co-founder and CEO of Y-East and Sustainability Director for Techno India Group, aimed to develop a creative and disruptive platform that highlights the state’s distinctiveness while working to restore 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.

This type of multidisciplinary festival has never happened before in the city. Moreover, it is a fully collaborative festival.

14 events took place in 16 hours at the festival. The creators’ segment brought together 500 creators under the same roof to foster national-level discussion. Eighty investors from across the country, including UpSparks, 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, and others were present to evaluate and assess entrepreneurial ventures.

Another distinct part of the event was the launch of the ‘Moving Kolkata, Kolkata Moving’ Project, an EU-funded project.

There were six conventions at The CCU Festival. For each of the selected conventions, there were 3 awards, celebrating Kolkata’s history, the present, and the future.

The events that are being held at The CCU Festival were FLOPTCH, MRKT, CCU GOT SOUL, BLUPRNT, BUIDL, JAMSTEADY LIVE, CYPHER, MOTOR CORTEX, MKKM, CLOUT, FLOW, DSRPT, and FINE DINE.

The CCU Festival was supported by TaalKutir Convention Centre as their venue partner and Make Calcutta Relevant Again.

Priyanka Dutta