Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) is hosting the fifth Inter-IIT Cultural meet in which around 3,200 students from 23 IITs are participating in various events.
The annual cultural meet started today, January 9 and will continue till January 11.
The cultural meet, hosted by a different IIT every year, was not conducted for the past two years owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Students from all IITs gather to celebrate cultural arts with events conducted by different clubs. The goal of this event is to allow some of the brightest minds in India to display their skills and achieve distinction by participating in a plethora of events that enrich the cultural sphere of IITs,” IIT Madras said in a statement.
Chief Guest Shri L. Subramaniam, a renowned violinist, composer, and conductor and a Padma Bhushan awardee, inaugurated the Inter- IIT Cultural Meet 5.0 today in the presence of Guest of Honour Prof. V. Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, Prof. Nilesh J. Vasa, Dean (Students), IIT Madras, Prof. Arshinder Kaur, Advisor (Cultural), IIT Madras, and students from all 23 IITs.
IIT Madras informed there are nine overall categories with each having a separate cup. The overall winner of the fifth inter-IIT cultural meet gets a trophy and will be declared as the champion.
Encouraging students to actively participate in the cultural meet, Prof. Kamakoti said, “The Institute is very happy to host this year’s Cultural Meet. India has a huge diversity in terms of cultural events. When we look at engineering, and in the last 21 years I have been teaching at IIT Madras, any engineer who has a deep introduction to an art, performs very well, especially in projects, research and reports. There is an element of grace, creativity and novelty that comes in there and that is what these co-curricular activities bring out in students.”
The cultural meet will feature various events in the following categories: Literary Arts, Speaking and Comedic Arts, Theatre Arts, Dance Arts, Musical Arts, Film-making Arts, Fine Arts, Digital Arts, and Lifestyle Arts.
E-sports and culinary events are the new events to have been introduced included this year, IIT Madras said.