With a motive of understanding the real essence of education and providing a platform to students to exhibit their talents, SIO Hyderabad organized “The Hyderabad Students Festival ‘13” on 28th and 29th September at Exhibition Grounds, Nampally, Hyderabad. The primary objectives of the fest were to identify and appreciate budding talents, present the concept of entertainment based on ethics, inculcate social sensitivity, promote healthy competitive spirit and to motivate students for research-oriented studies. The fest covered varied academic and non-academic interests of students of various streams and background of education. It included events such as Short-films, Poem writing, Article writing, Mock Parliament, Paper presentations, Project demonstrations, Photography, Painting, Drama, Robotics and many more. All the events were designed in such a way that social sensitivity is inculcated among students along with the overall career and personality growth. The festival was inaugurated by Dr KR Venugopal, Retd IAS officer, Dr Mohammad Ali Rafath, IAS officer and Dr Akbar Ali Khan, VC, Telangana University. Addressing the Inaugural session, Dr Akbar Ali Khan said that students need to learn the subject with the help of core text books and should not depend on the guide books. He lamented over the less percentage of GDP being spent on the education sector by the Government. Dr KR Venugopal interacted with the students participating in the festival and asked them to be morally and ethically stronger. Galleries of SIO and Students Festival highlighted the organization’s mission of promoting the talents of students and utilizing them towards addressing the societal issues. The award distribution ceremony was presided over by National President of SIO, Ashfaque Ahmed Shareef. The other guests included Abid Rasool Khan, Chairman of AP State Minority Commission and Sudarshan Rao, Member of Oscar Jury Committee. sio-india.org