BENGALURU, September 26, 2026 — “The 7th edition of IITMAA Sangam, the flagship annual conference of the IIT Madras Alumni Association (IITMAA), concluded today at the Taj MG Road in Bengaluru as a resounding success, uniting top national leaders, industry titans, and innovators around India’s self-reliance agenda. Centered on the national ambition of “Atmanirbhar Bharat – Building a Self-Reliant India,” the summit convened an influential gathering of policymakers, corporate leaders, technology pioneers, professors, startups, and academic experts to address the pivotal drivers required to secure India’s strategic and economic independence.
Setting a high-impact tone for the summit, the grand inauguration was led by Pralhad Joshi, Minister of Education, Government of India; Vice Admiral Sanjay Sadhu, Controller of Warship Production & Acquisition, Indian Navy; Prof. V. Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras; Dr. Sridhar Vembu, Chief Scientist & Co-founder, Zoho Corporation, Ms. Goda Ramkumar, VP Data Science Flipkart; Prof. M Vidyasagar, FRS; Dr. Pratyush Kumar, Co-Founder, Sarvam AI and more.
The day’s deliberations spanned critical sectors central to national growth, including artificial intelligence, defence technologies, space exploration, digital financial infrastructure, semiconductor manufacturing, and sustainable infrastructure. Key voices addressing the audience included leading deep-tech innovators from Sarvam AI, Skyroot Aerospace, The ePlane Company, and GalaxEye.
Pralhad Joshi, Minister of Education, Government of India, said, “IITMAA Sangam 2026 is a key convergence point for technology, academia, industry, entrepreneurship, and public service, supporting India’s journey towards self-reliance and Viksit Bharat 2047. India’s electricity generation capacity has grown from 249 GW in 2014 to 552 GW today, including around 310 GW of non-fossil capacity, while the grid has recently managed a peak demand of 281 GW, with nearly one-third met through renewable energy. This growing infrastructure is enabling technological self-reliance, domestic manufacturing, and innovation. IIT Madras exemplifies this transformation with 560 startups, including 109 incubated in 2025–26, a collective valuation of ₹80,000 crore, 472 patents, and ₹950 crore in alumni contributions. At the heart of Sangam is this same spirit of Atmanirbhar Bharat, with discussions spanning AI, defence, infrastructure and other critical areas. This is also part of IITMAA’s larger effort to deepen alumni engagement, with our chapter network growing from 16 to 51 chapters over the past three years. Sangam is ultimately about connecting this powerful IIT Madras community and turning ideas, conversations and relationships into meaningful contributions towards Viksit Bharat.
Union Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman attended the 7th edition of ‘IITMAA Sangam’, the annual conference of the IIT Madras Alumni Association, organized in Bengaluru. Participating in a special chat with Prof. Rajeev Srinivasan during the event, Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman dismissed pessimistic narratives suggesting that India’s growth would remain limited to just 2.5%–3%. The minister highlighted that over the past decade, the Indian economy was pulled out of the ‘Fragile 5’ status, and the banking sector was rejuvenated with support over ₹3 lakh crore. Under the Public Sector Enterprises (PSE) policy, except for 8 strategic sectors, all other fields, including space and nuclear sectors, have been opened up to private participation. The Minister proudly noted that this enabled Indian startups to actively participate in space missions to the extent of manufacturing satellites.
Firmly rejecting reports in foreign media claiming India has “missed the bus” on AI and quantum technology, the Minister stated that evaluating achievements solely based on the number of listed companies on stock exchanges is incorrect. The minister affirmed that India has the potential to achieve 10%+ GDP growth, which is being driven by encouraging innovations like the use of drones and PoS technology in agriculture. By replacing colonial-era laws with the ‘Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita’ and introducing simplified tax policies, the government is strengthening trust in citizens and entrepreneurs. The minister added that the ministry remains committed to developing appropriate policies and incorporating suggestions to facilitate patient capital for deep-tech hardware startups.
During the event, Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman launched the ‘IITM Unicorn Frontier Fund-I’, an Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) jointly initiated by Unicorn India Ventures (UIV) and IIT Madras / IITM Research Park. Following the dialogue, Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman also released the book “Cashless Nation: How UPI Changed Everything”, authored by Shri Santanu Paul and Shri B. Sambamurthy.
(L-R) Sridhar Boovaraghavan, President, IITMAA & Chair, IITMAA SANGAM 2026; Prof. V. Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras; Deepak V Naragund, Group CFO, India Assetz; Dr. Sridhar Vembu, Chief Scientist & Co-founder, Zoho Corporation; Prof. Ashwin Mahalingam, Dean, Alumni & Corporate Relations, Dept. of Civil Engg., IIT Madras.
While software hiring in the Bay Area has contracted over the past 3 to 4 years outside of AI, automation itself is not a threat, it is the engine of prosperity. However, productivity gains only benefit citizens if we defeat tech monopolies. Foreign card networks extract 3.5% to 4% fees, whereas India’s NPCI processes over 25 billion monthly UPI transactions at near-zero cost on a lean ₹4,000 to ₹5,000 crore budget. Without indigenous alternatives to foreign platforms and monopolies, we risk economic extraction and platform kill-switches. Developing deep tech across every sector is non-negotiable for India’s national and economic sovereignty.”
Emphasizing the core vision of the summit, Mr. Sridhar Boovaraghavan, President of IITMAA and Chair of Sangam 2026, said, “Reflecting on the remarkable growth and success of Sangam 2026, it is clear that our alumni community remains deeply committed to advancing India’s self-reliant future. Beyond facilitating strategic dialogues across policy, technology, and industry, a defining milestone of this year’s summit is the scaling of our campus mentorship ecosystem. By expanding our Career and Life Coaching (CLIC) initiative, we are taking a definitive step toward ensuring that every single student at IIT Madras is paired with a dedicated alumni mentor for lifelong personal, academic, and professional guidance.”
The discussions highlighted the growing strategic importance of space in India’s defence ecosystem. Mr. Pranit Mehta, Co-founder & COO of GalaxEye, noted that space is increasingly recognised as the fourth domain of defence, with satellite-based intelligence, communication, and navigation becoming critical to modern warfare and national security. He pointed to the evolving use of decoys to counter satellite imaging, underscoring the need for sovereign space capabilities and reliable space infrastructure for real-time situational awareness.
Adding to the industry perspective, Mr. Naga Bharath Daka, Co-founder of Skyroot Aerospace, highlighted India’s space-sector reforms as a key inflection point. The establishment of IN-SPACe created a single-window interface for private players, and within five and a half months of its 2022 inauguration, India saw the launch of Vikram-S with zero-day regulatory delay. From a share of under 2% of the global space economy, India now has 400+ space-tech startups and a growing seed-capital ecosystem, signalling greater scope for public-private participation and commercialisation of the country’s space capabilities.
Dr. Pratyush Kumar, Co-founder of Sarvam AI, mentioned that just as India silenced global skeptics by building world-leading digital public infrastructure like its national identity framework and UPI to command 60% of global digital transactions, Sarvam AI Co-founder Pratyush Kumar highlighted that the nation is now launching ‘Year One’ of its indigenous AI mission. By deploying domestic GPU infrastructure, fostering foundational R&D, and leveraging unmatched population scale, India is asserting technological sovereignty to build and lead the next decade of global, human-centric AI solutions.
Prof. V. Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, highlighted the institution’s role in expanding access to technology education and building India’s innovation ecosystem. IIT Madras’ programmes have reached around 53,000 students, while NPTEL-SWAYAM courses serve around 1.5 million learners. He also noted that IIT Madras has filed more than 400 patents in the last three financial years and incubated 583 startups with a combined valuation of around ₹83,000 crore, with 75% of startups incubated in the last two years coming from outside IIT Madras.
Throughout the day, high-impact panel discussions and fireside sessions evaluated critical themes such as sovereign AI development, next-generation maritime trade, advanced defence capabilities, and semiconductor supply chains, featuring insights from organizations like Reliance Intelligence, Flipkart, NVIDIA, Texas Instruments, and Tata Electronics.
Mr. K R Harinarayan, Founder & CEO, U Solar Clean Energy, said ““While the first era of corporate solar focused on daytime tariff savings, U-Solar is pioneering the next frontier for commercial and industrial enterprises: firm, dispatchable, 24×7 clean energy. With Time-of-Day pricing driving evening grid tariffs 25% to 40% higher, when a facility uses power is now just as critical as how much it consumes. At U-Solar, we bridge this gap by integrating solar generation, utility-scale battery storage, hybrid microgrids, and automated load control into a seamless energy stack.
Through our 500 MW portfolio spanning 300+ projects across 18 states—including flagship deployments for partners like BigBasket, CtrlS Data Centres, Flipkart, and Toyota Kirloskar Motor—we have proven that clean energy can replace expensive diesel backup and handle continuous round-the-clock operational loads. Whether through group captive models or on-site storage microgrids, U-Solar enables businesses to lock in 20% to 30% power savings, insulate balance sheets against rising utility tariffs, and achieve auditable Scope 2 decarbonization. As we scale toward our 3 GW vision by 2032, U-Solar is committed to being the long-term energy partner C&I leaders trust for reliable, intelligent, and cost-predictable clean power.”
The conference was anchored by lead partners U-SOLAR and IndiaAssetz, with supporting backing from SNJ Group, ARCA Alternatives, ACR IIT Madras, Prestige, Zooper, Pratithi Investments, Unicorn India Ventures, Shivom Enterprises, and Mutual PR Consultants. The event culminated this evening with a prestigious award ceremony followed by a grand cultural performance by acclaimed musician Guitar Prasanna.
