Sangam 2025 bridges Alumni, Investors, and Innovators at IIT Madras Summit

bengaluru/ chennai: the sixth edition of 'sangam 2025', the flagship global innovation and alumni summit of iit madras and iit madras alumni association (iitmaa), was held in bengaluru on july 4 and 5. the two-day event brought together over 500 participants including top alumni, global tech leaders, investors, faculty, and students.union minister of commerce and industry, piyush goyal, inaugurated the summit and announced that the government had allocated a second tranche of ₹10,000 crore to support india's deep tech ecosystem. “this support will drive innovation, absorption of new technologies, and boost india's global competitiveness,” he said, highlighting that india is on track to become the third-largest economy by 2027.the summit featured global ai leaders such as aparna chennapragada (microsoft), srinivas narayanan (openai), and tarun mehta (ather energy), all iit madras alumni. themed around “innovation and entrepreneurship,” the event focused on india's role in shaping a 'viksit bharat 2047'.a major highlight was the startup pitchfest, where 20 deep tech and ai startups presented their innovations to over 250 investors and venture capitalists. the top three winners were:folium sensing - real-time fiber-optic sensing for critical infrastructureq-axis motors - precision gimbals for defense and surveillancezentor medtech - solid-state laser technology for eye surgeryother launches included a new entrepreneurship course for alumni by mckinsey's ramesh srinivasan, and books such as “the co-intelligence revolution” and “marketing mixology.”speakers included prof. v. kamakoti, director, iit madras, prof. preeti aghalayam, director-in-charge, iitm zanzibar, mp shri tejasvi surya, dr. s. somanath (former isro chief), and infosys co-founder kris gopalakrishnan.“sangam is a powerful confluence of minds. our alumni are central to our innovation mission,” said iitmaa president shyamala rajaram. dean ashwin mahalingam added, “with alumni support, iit madras is poised to lead india's journey in science, technology, and entrepreneurship.”