Shaastra-2025: Congregation of top global minds organised at IIT Madras

The IIT Madras has conducted the annual technical festival called “Shaastra” through their students’ body wherein they dedicated a few days to embrace the latest technological thoughts & practices from across the globe. Various global subject matter experts, often related with sustainable development and nature’s rehabilitation, to interact with students and faculties. The experts would bring their knowledge and practical case studies to the table.

The students also organized workshops, competitions, exhibitions, apart from cultural program and entertainment. The festival is organized on global standards and has earned an ISO 9001:2015 certification too.

The Future Cities Summit (FCS) in Shaastra-2025 festival explored and examined the multidimensional approach towards the urban world of future, which will have all elements of energy, economy, transport & mobility, innovation & technologies. The focus has been on ways to raise livability and sustainability.

The lengthy discussions during Shaastra-2025 hovered around Technology, AI, Data Integration, Legal and Ethical Frameworks for Smart Cities, Future of Urban Transportation, Cultural Preservation and Urban Development, Resilient Infrastructure and Climate Adaptation, and Renewable Energy Integration in Urban Environments.

Sustainability firm & think tank Vaidic Srijan LLP participated in the “Resilient Infrastructure and Climate Adaptation” domain, with their evidence-based case studies and success stories. A healthy deliberation was also made by Vaidic Srijan on “Healthy Natural Resources for Sustainable Cities”.

Madhukar Swayambhu, Co-founder & research head of Vaidic Srijan, presented the case study of Moradabad Amrit Sarovars, showcasing how restoring the health of the natural Waterbodies in the Brass Capital of the country transformed the overall health, happiness and prosperity index of the city.

Swayambhu showed because of their nature-based solution (NBS) the urban flooding in Moradabad has been eradicated and ground water recharge has bolstered. The direct result of the rejuvenation of large water bodies in Moradabad has been that the Air Quality Index of the city has been transformed from worst in Uttar Pradesh to healthy one where people could breathe good air. This also benefitted biodiversity conservation and decreased post-monsoon vector borne diseases outbreak.

Bottom line discussed and described during the session was, the conventional approach of “cleaning” the Waterbodies is no solution, but simply postponement of the problem. A holistic and sustainable approach is the “restore the health” of the Waterbodies, since they are the ‘ecosystem service providers’ to their respective vicinities, not a mere reservoir or pool of Water. Another interesting aspect was to transform the Waterbody rejuvenation projects from “expense” to “revenue” through enabling them to earn the environmental credits (Water, Carbon, Sanitation, Emission and Biodiversity), which are tradeable commodities in the global markets.

The summit was graced by the presence of many eminent speakers from the governments, industry and academics from across the globe. These would include Kok Chin Tay, Chairman of the Smart Cities Network, Suchismita Goswami, PhD fellow from University of Copenhagen, Dr. Chinmay Hedge, CEO & Co-Founder of Astrikos AI, Dr. Shailendra Jaiswal, ex-ED, DRDO, and many more.