IIT Madras alumni association launches initiative to put ‘Million Smiles’ across world

NEW DELHI: IIT Madras Alumni Association has launched a ‘Mission Million Smiles’ initiative to create a positive impact on the lives of at least one million people in India and rest of the world in two years.

Another key initiative of IITMAA is the ‘Mission 5000 Ignited Minds’, which aims to get 10% of the alumni as committed volunteers for its initiatives.

There are a total of 53,825 members, including 22,179 undergraduates and 31,646 post graduates in the IIT Madras Alumni Association.

The IITMAA’s societal impact initiatives will focus on areas such as science, technology and innovation interventions for the nation, mentoring students, water and sustainability, and women in STEM.

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Highlighting the key objectives of the new missions, Krishnan Narayanan, President, IIT Madras Alumni Association (IITMAA), said, “We are inspired by our Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Mann Ki Baat address last year on the importance of alumni associations to the nation.”

He further added that the association “comprising over 50,000 alumni, students and faculty, has the potential, knowledge and skills, and resources to become a powerful change agent. It is important for us to give back to India, and to our local communities”. He urged the alumni to take the pledge for the new initiative at iitmaa.org.

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Some of the new initiatives planned by the IITMAA for the coming two years include:

• Conduct the ‘I For IITM’ event in a hybrid mode, involving more than 5,000 alumni across 125 cities in 15 countries to celebrate the Foundation Day of IIT Madras.
• Under “Guru Talks” and “Engineering Simplified” series, the IIT Madras faculty will create short, engaging lectures on cutting-edge research and technologies like AI, quantum computing, and extra-terrestrial manufacturing.
• IITMAA’s “Thought Leaders Council” will aim to bring together 12 eminent alumni from across the world to an interdisciplinary forum that will identify a few STI big-bets for India.
• Implement the IITMAA ‘Impact4Bharat’ alumni engagement model for societal impact projects.
• Sangam, the flagship event, will be themed this year on ‘Restoring Balance – Women in Leadership and STEM.’ IITMAA is anchoring the chapter for Society of Women Engineers in South India, and will champion the causes of 1) Inspiring girl-child and women-students in STEM, and 2) Women in leadership and entrepreneurship.

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