In collaboration with the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), WHEELS Global Foundation (WGF) extended the PanIIT World of Technology (PIWOT) 2025 experience to Satellite Conferences at six newer IIT campuses across the country: Ropar, Hyderabad, Bhubaneswar, Guwahati, Tirupati, and Gandhinagar. These satellite events highlighted cutting-edge research, innovation programs, and start-up incubators at these institutions. They also featured highly productive dialogues among industry, academia, and WHEELS, focusing on broader goals of actionable industry-academia collaboration and leveraging technology to improve lives in rural India.

A pivotal achievement of these events was the signing of the MoUs (Memorandum of Understanding) between WHEELS Global Foundation and the Deans of six IITs. This agreement, witnessed by leaders from CII, IIT faculty, and the WGF leadership team, marked a significant milestone in advancing collaborative efforts. Notable attendees included WGF president Ratan Agarwal (virtually), WGF India president Sujata Roy, Ambassador Pradeep Kapur, Hitendra Ghosh, Suresh Shenoy, Dr. Ram Ramanan, Dr. Raj Shah, Dr. Bindu Kansupara, Prof. Kannan Moudgalya, Yogesh Andlay, and Yadav Murti Sankaran.

The Satellite Conferences received an overwhelming response, drawing over 500 participants including students, industry professionals, academia, armed forces, senior Govt officials, overseas University leaders and WHEELS members. The collaboration seeks to bridge the gap between innovation and large-scale implementation, facilitate knowledge exchange for rural advancement, and initiate impactful projects in partnership with Pan-IIT alumni, WHEELS and other stakeholders. 

WHEELS Global Foundation demonstrated its unique ability to bridge technology, innovation, and social impact, showcasing how collaborative efforts can drive material change across multiple sectors and communities. These satellite events are paving the way for action-oriented quarterly forums, fostering tri-party collaboration among IITs, industry and WHEELS. Further, with the recent launch of its new initiative to connect ‘Innovations from US Universities for Underserved Populations’ to WHEELS Pan-India NGO Network, WGF is looking forward to bi-directional innovation-to-deployment activities and linkages with these quarterly forums.

We urge all those with an interest in supporting the largely underserved segment of India’s future to join WHEELS’ efforts by visiting www.wheelsglobal.org and getting involved in numerous ways to be part of our journey.

Also, you can Read the article in New India Abroad Edition.

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The author is the Marketing and Communications Manager, WHEELS Global Foundation.