The APOGEE English Press (AEP) met up with Aditya Khandelwal, the General Secretary of the Students’ Union (SU) and ex officio CoStAAn of Inventory, who agreed to a short interview to discuss his role in organising the upcoming edition of APOGEE. 

Aditya explained that his roles as the General Secretary of the SU and CoStAAn of Inventory required him to oversee matters related to the SU inventory, like allocating it to various clubs and departments (including departments having larger inventory requirements, such as ADP), running routine checks to ensure minimal inventory loss, ensuring that all Hostel Representatives are managing their respective hostel inventories, overseeing the refreshment budget, distribution of coupons, procurement and distribution of fest merchandise and so on.

Additionally, he also acted in an advisory capacity to the CoStAAn of Finance, the President of the SU, on financial transactions pertaining to the fest. 

He further stated that the CoStAA was responsible for deciding the blueprint and overall direction of the fest, and as a CoStAAn, he had an integral role to play in the same. 

When asked about how this year’s APOGEE would be different from the previous edition, Aditya exclaimed that this year’s fest would be much larger in scale than the preceding one, as evidenced by this year’s APOGEE fest budget exceeding last year’s by a huge margin. 

The fest would host multiple workshops, hackathons, case competitions and flagship technical events like Robo Wars, along with two Prof Shows; up from one in APOGEE 2025. A lot more students from other universities across India were slated to arrive on campus over the weekend, as compared to the previous year’s edition. This was partly due to an effort to hold the final rounds of hackathons and case competitions in person during the fest, instead of holding all rounds online as was done in the past. 

The CoStAA was also expecting the fest to net a profit this APOGEE.

On a personal note, Aditya shared that he was looking forward to attending Robo Wars and the Darzi Indie Show at the fest. 

Around two weeks before this interview, the third ORM was held before being called off midway following a tense standoff between the StuCCA, CoStAA and the UC, where multiple major departments threatened to pull out of organising APOGEE unless their list of demands was met. The UC unanimously rejected these demands. The fourth and final ORM was eventually held in the following week.

When the AEP questioned Aditya on what had transpired between the two ORMs, he elaborated that the two parties had reached an agreement over the week, where it was decided that certain demands would be worked upon at a later stage. However, he did not explain what these specific demands were, maintaining that they would only be made public after being fulfilled and that the status quo persisted when it came to the APOGEE and Oasis Charter. 

He further stated that all the CoStAAns and StuCCAns, above all their professional responsibilities, were his batchmates, and expressed his delight that they were all willing to find common ground and work together to deliver the best possible fest for everyone despite their grievances. 

On the existing ledger deficit and revenue goals for APOGEE 2026, Aditya briefed the AEP on the introduction of a new, separate ‘Debt Ledger’ this year (in addition to the Union Ledger and the Fest Ledger), and that any debts incurred during the fest would go directly to the Debt Ledger, before being cleared via the Union Ledger. 

As a parting message for the freshers experiencing APOGEE for the first time, Aditya advised them to go out and explore as much of the fest as possible, and to use it as an opportunity to learn and grow.