Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Madras launched the Centre for Indian Knowledge Systems today, on August 16, 2022. IIT Madras: Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, President of the Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR), and Shri Kumar Tuhin, Director General of the ICCR, jointly launched the Centre for Indian Knowledge Systems. The centre has been launched under the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras. The management has opened the centre with the aim of focusing on maintaining four thematic areas, which are:

• Mathematics and Astronomy in India
• Architectural Engineering, Vāstu and Śilpa-śāstra
• Indian Political and Economic Thought
• Indian Aesthetics and Grammatical Traditions

The key outcomes that have been predicted through the establishment of this centre are:

1. The first outcome is related to research. The aim of the centre is to publish content which is filled with quality research about the contribution of India to different sciences in the world. The centre will spread awareness about this through seminars and conferences. They will also collaborate with scholars and institutions from outside.
2. The second aim is related to teaching. Through this centre, they will offer courses related to the four thematic areas that have been mentioned above. The courses will be taught to students from IIT MAdras as well as students enrolled in NPTEL (National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning).
3. The third outcome that the centre wants to focus on is public outreach. The centre is planning to conduct workshops. Through these workshops, they will teach students and teachers about India's contributions. Awareness will be spread through other means also, like social media posts, articles, etc.

  According to the information received, the principal investigator of this centre is Aditya Kolachana. The Ministry of Education’s Indian Knowledge Systems Division has funded this centre. The other team members are:

• Prof. Arun Menon
• Manu Santhanam
• Prof. Santosh Kumar Sahu
• Prof. Sudarsan Padmanabhan
• Prof. Rajesh Kumar
• Prof. Jyotirmaya Tripathy

With the establishment of this centre, Mr. Kolachana and his team are aiming to get a deeper understanding of the contribution of our country in the fields of science, technology, architecture, linguistics, arts, culture, economics, etc. Along with this, they also want to spread their findings to the public. During the event, the Director General of ICCR talked about the importance of this collaboration. Through this, the management aims at spreading awareness to the foreign world about the contribution of India to the world of science. They want to showcase how rich and versatile the heritage and culture of India is. IIT Madras’s Dean of Global Engagement, Professor Raghunathan Rengaswamy, spoke about the quality of research that the centre has done till now. He also said that through this initiative the centre also aims at creating an environment for students from abroad to study in India. Through this, the department also wants to internationalise the Indian institutes.