UP CM Yogi Seeks Stronger Academia-Industry Ties at IIT Kanpur Meet
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The Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IIT Kanpur) hosted its flagship corporate–academia engagement summit, IITK Samanvay 2025, on 2nd and 3rd September 2025 at the IIT Kanpur campus. Hon’ble Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath ji, graced the occasion as Chief Guest.
The summit, themed “Igniting Ideas. Accelerating Innovation.”, was designed to bring together leaders from academia, industry, and governance to accelerate meaningful collaboration and innovation. This year’s focus was on three critical pillars shaping the future, Artificial Intelligence, Sustainability, and Cybersecurity.
Addressing the event as Chief Guest, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath ji, said, “To achieve our honorable PM’s vision of Viksit Bharat by 2047 and Aatmnirbharta, it is of utmost importance for the nation that the development and application of new technologies are carried out by us. Making India Aatnirbhar in sectors such as med-tech, drones, artificial intelligence, and sustainability is our priority. Significant progress has been made towards these goals over last eleven years, and we now need to speed up the progress further. The industrial development of Uttar Pradesh, particularly in deeptech, is critical to this mission.
Today, India has emerged as the fourth-largest economy in the world, and soon we will rise to the third position. A ‘Developed India’ means a self-reliant India, we are strong, capable, and leading in every domain.
The strategic challenges of the new India must be met by our youth and institutions like IITs by developing new technologies. This is a time of competition, and we must establish leadership in every field. I am pleased that institutions like IIT Kanpur are augmenting Uttar Pradesh’s development journey through technological advancements, especially in areas such as quantum computing, deeptech, drones, medtech, and artificial intelligence. This is not only a strong step toward making the state self-reliant and capable, but also the nation as a whole.
I am confident that with industry-academia collaborations, Uttar Pradesh will become a leading state in ‘New India.’ Our industries must also play an active role in the field of innovation. In recent times, cybersecurity has emerged as a major challenge, and IIT Kanpur will play a key role finding solutions in this domain. I believe that just as IIT Kanpur has taken leadership through the ‘Samanvay’ program, it must also lead the ‘DeepTech 2025 Summit.’ IIT Kanpur has to establish national leadership in the field of cybersecurity. Challenges like cybersecurity can only be addressed when industry and institutions come together to develop new technologies.
For a developed India, we need to act across every sector. Today, Uttar Pradesh is advancing in security, economy, and trade. We must also engage in self-reflection—where we learn to harmonize the conscious, subconscious, and unconscious mind in the field of technology, and dedicate this strength to nation-building.”
During the keynote address, Dr. Harrick Vin, Chief Technology Officer, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) inspired the audience at IITK Samanvay 2025, with his vision of a dynamic future, where people-centric AI and human ingenuity work together to innovate solutions that are inclusive, adaptive and impactful.
On the occasion of the MoU signing between TCS and Airawat, IIT Kanpur, he said, “India stands at the cusp of redefining urban living, and we are laying the foundation for a new paradigm in urban planning and management—one that is predictive and profoundly human-centric. Industry–academia collaboration will be key.
Through this partnership with IIT Kanpur’s AIRAWAT Research Foundation, TCS will bring our deep capabilities in AI, remote sensing, multi-modal data fusion, digital twin, as well as data and knowledge engineering technologies to help solve today’s urban challenges and anticipate the needs of tomorrow’s cities. The future of urban living is rooted in our capacity to envision cities as dynamic ecosystems – adapting and evolving in response to the ever-changing needs of industry and society.”
Talking about the purpose of Samanvay and significance of industry–academia collaboration, Prof. Manindra Agrawal, Director, IIT Kanpur, said, “To leverage IIT Kanpur’s knowledge capital in emerging technologies like AI, cybersecurity and sustainability, we have consistently been fostering industry–academia partnerships. The support we have received from both government and private partners allows our centres, such as the Wadhwani Center for Developing Intelligent Systems and AIRAWAT Research Foundation, to design better solutions for the country with technology at its core.”
The event also featured a series of panel discussions. The panel on “Co-Inventing the Future: Translational Research in AI, Sustainability & Cybersecurity” featured leaders from Mastercard, DXC Technology, Hindustan Petroleum, Wabtec Corporation, Hindalco Industries, Jubilant Ingrevia, and other innovation-driven organizations, moderated by Prof. Ashutosh Modi of IIT Kanpur. Another panel, “Purpose-Driven Technology: Using CSR to Fuel Innovation in AI, Sustainability & Cybersecurity”, explored how corporations leverage CSR to create societal impact, with participation from leaders at Indian Oil, Hindustan Copper, CESC, Kajaria Ceramics, Baker Hughes, JK Paper, and OakNorth, under the moderation of Prof. Ashish Garg, Head of Sustainable Energy Engineering at IIT Kanpur. A third panel, “Crafting the Future: How MSMEs and Academia can Shape a Self-Reliant India”, moderated by Prof. Deepu Philip of IIT Kanpur, spotlighted MSME leaders from Hans Energy Systems, Qualtech Consultants, Rakan Steels, UY Trienviro, and Netplast Pvt. Ltd., focusing on how smaller enterprises can collaborate with academia to strengthen India’s innovation ecosystem.
During the event, an MoU was signed between IIT Kanpur’s AIRAWAT Research Foundation and Tata Consultancy Services. TCS will partner with the Foundation to identify areas of urban planning where artificial intelligence (AI) can provide solutions to tackle urban growth at the scale of India. This project, building on the long-standing TCS–IIT Kanpur partnership, will harness AI, remote sensing, and digital governance to address urban challenges through a SEE-integrated (Social, Economic, Environmental) approach. The initiative aims to create high-resolution air quality maps, predict and mitigate urban flooding, optimize green spaces for carbon absorption, and estimate carbon flux to aid climate action. It will also enhance waste management, green energy efficiency, and citizen participation through AI-enabled solutions, shaping urban smartness as a measure of holistic sustainability rather than technology alone.
