"Why are people procrastinating when we need action to save the future of our planet?" the environment activist asked at the conference held in IIT-Madras on Sunday.

Riddhima, a member of the Indian Youth Climate Network, said youngsters are important stakeholders in environmental issues because her generation may not inherit the planet as it once was. Environmental issues are interlinked to development problems, she said getting the audience to interact with her as she described how even a quick Google search could harm the environment.

Riddhima left the audience astonished with interesting facts and analogies. Drawing experiences from her talks and travels in the country and abroad, she said one hears only empty rhetoric international climate change conferences. "There is a huge gap between what is being spoken about and what is being done. We need to focus on local responses to environmental problems," she said.

Malvika Iyer, 24, a doctoral student in Chennai, is studying the self-image of the disabled. She lost both her arms in a bomb blast in Rajasthan when she was 13. After being bedridden for a year, she was left with four months to prepare for the Class 10 board exams. She eventually aced the examination with 97%.

"I was physically and emotionally traumatised at the time. But the fact that I could succeed in academics at that time is something that I look back at for inspiration. It motivates me," Malvika said.

Echoing Malvika's thoughts on the need to make society more inclusive for the disabled, Khairani Barokka, an Indonesian performer and artiste, said she suffers an acute neurological condition that paralyses one side of her body.

"Happiness and pain can co-exist," she said, breaking down after a powerful reading of poetry.

The Times of India was the lead sponsor for the independently organised event.