Media Release

Mangaluru, Mar 20: St Aloysius College is a 141-year-old institution known for its innovative programmes in academics, sports and games and extra-curricular and co-curricular activities. The context we live in today is marked by profound changes, acute conflicts and new possibilities. The world is in need of building a future of solidarity with all sections of society. Creativity, critical thinking and conscience are the imperatives for bridging the ever-widening gap between communities and cultures.

Keeping this in mind, St Aloysius proudly hosted the biggest online sharing event 'The Knowledge Factory' on March 18 and 19, from 4 pm to 6.30 pm IST in collaboration with Promise Foundation while Google, Godrej and Deccan Herald were the associate partners.

There were more than 6000 participants from across the globe, engaged in sharing and generating ideas, in this thought provoking program called 'The Knowledge Factory'.

Knowledge Factory, a platform for young professionals to meet over a meaningful experience witnessed a unique gathering of thinking Indians like - Ravi Venkatesan - business leader, author, and social entrepreneur and Meghna Narayan - co-founder and co-CEO of Slurrp Farm, spoke on the theme 'Fuelling the Passions of a Million Entrepreneurs'; Meena Ganesh - co-founder and CEO of Portea Medical and Sara Abdullah Pilot - chairperson and co-founder of CEQUIN, spoke on the 'Gender and the Power of Negotiation'; Manu Pillai - award-winning author and Malini Nair - consulting editor and culture writer, spoke on the theme 'Forgotten Lessons from India’s Rich Past'; T M Krishna - vocalist in the Carnatic tradition and Shubha Mudgal - Indian singer of Hindustani classical music, spoke on the theme 'Harnessing Art for Social Change!'; Dr Sowmya Yadav - chief scientist at the World Health Organization and Rajat Goyal - counter director, of IAVI India, spoke on 'The Human Costs of Defeating Disease'; Ali Fazal - actor and Sucharita Tyagi - film critic, spoke on 'The Art of Storytelling'.

This is an Aloysius effort to share contemporary knowledge via a blended form of learning on topics of interest across all sections of student community both internally and externally. It is a programme for enthusiastic knowledge seekers exclusively created by St Aloysius College as academic partners to a new world of online learning.

Responses to Knowledge Factory

"The 'Knowledge Factory' has been an immensely enriching experience in terms of its inspiring and iconic speakers drawn from diverse fields and careers. The experience has proved yet again that education has a great impact and influence on young minds and hearts when it happens beyond the regular classroom context. All the speakers took us into their personal negotiations with life and how their never-give-up attitude has brought them to where they are today. The reflective and critical responses from the resource persons facilitated an enhanced awareness of the issues and concerns affecting and driving contemporary life. In gist, the mega event transported us to a fascinating world of a multiplicity of experiences that have shaped the life and future of eminent and exemplary leaders. The experience will linger in our memories for a long time to come.”
- Dr Alwyn D’Sa, controller of examinations, SAC

“The young and passionate storytellers inspired the students with their candid cultural commentary that kept us all on the edge of our seats. Their exciting and out-of-the-box journeys sent us all into a world of real men and women who have made a difference by being themselves chasing their dreams all the way to their miraculous culmination. Thanks to Knowledge Factory for stroking the right chord and provoking us towards being change-makers one day.”
- Dr Praveen Martis, SJ, Principal, SAC

“Growing up with learning from people we admire was never so easy in the past but technology-enabled programmes have made it all possible today. St Aloysius College believes in bringing the world together in sharing knowledge, and Knowledge Factory is one such initiative that has captured many hearts. It was a treat for participants to witness the virtual welcome to Aloysius when the user interface panned through the lush green 140-year campus leading every participant to the event lobby and the main auditorium of St Aloysius College where the stage was set for 12 eminent speakers watched by thousands of active participants across the globe.”
- Dr Senek D’Souza, Dean, HR, SAC

“Knowledge Factory 2021 was truly an enlightening experience. The points made about entrepreneurship and self-employment by Ms Meghana Narayan & Mr Ravi Venkatesan stuck with me.”
- Sneha D’Souza, II BCom

“Knowledge Factory 2021 was an amazing opportunity to learn about various topics of global consequence, be it art forms, science, business, etc. As a person inclined toward biological sciences and medicinal research, I found the talk by Dr Soumya Swaminathan and Dr Rajat Goyal to be especially enlightening and enkindled, in me, the hope for a new age of medicine and science.”
- Ian Castelino, I BSc

“Knowledge Factory as the name states was definitely a source of a lot of knowledge from various fields and being a part of such candid conversations between great minds was truly an experience to cherish.”
- Paloma Rodrigues, II BBA

“Knowledge Factory was an amazing experience for me. Not only did I get to know new things but they enlightened me thoroughly and explained everything. It's such a joy to be a part of this and not only does it expand our knowledge but shows us the upcoming developments too. All in all, it was a very cherishable event.”
- Letitia Nathalia DCosta, I BA

“Indeed the name itself tells us the whole thing, "THE KNOWLEDGE FACTORY!" It was such a great experience where different speakers came up from different fields and helped us to inspire and also get aspired. So glad to withstand such an amazing webinar! Looking forward to more!."
- Noorain Sheikh, II BA

“To have such brilliant minds from these various walks of life, who dared to take the road less taken and reach where they are today is inspiring and thanks to Knowledge Factory, we got to experience their talk first hand. It was an amazing experience and I hope to attend more in the future.”
- Carissa Rego, III BA

“Knowledge factory was an amazing experience for me. It has taught me a beautiful lesson that every success has a lot of hardships to face. As the name goes definitely this has been a knowledge giver to me. Great initiative by our college! It was fabulous!!!”
- Lisha Ann Pereira, ll BSc