Research revealing how “thermal” behaviour can emerge from low-complexity dynamics and not necessarily extremely chaotic ones, has been published in the prestigious journal Physical Review Letters. In everyday life, objects equilibrate with the environment. “A steaming cup of tea left on your desk eventually reaches room temperature, losing almost all memory of how it was heated,” says Prof. Shantanav Chakraborty, Center for Quantum Science and Technology, IIITH. He is referring to the process known as thermalization in Physics, where many-particle systems evolve towards equilibrium. “Here, only a few coarse properties, like temperature or energy, matter, and the fine details of the past are effectively forgotten”. According to the professor, quantum physics can mimic thermalization but in an intriguing manner. “A large quantum system can be in a perfectly well-defined pure state, evolving deterministically under Schrödinger’s equation, and yet any small part of it can still look completely random and ‘thermal’”, he says.

Prof. Sandeep K Shukla, director of IIIT Hyderabad, in an exclusive interview with Careers360, speaks about the institute’s research-oriented vision, focus on gender and socio-economic diversity, and special admission channels designed for students from underprivileged backgrounds. He also highlighted the direct admission pathways for students from state boards, scholarships offered, how US universities excel and the lessons that can be learnt. IIIT Hyderabad has already established itself as a socially conscious, research-driven institution — one that applies technology to address real societal challenges. Whether it’s through projects Bhashini, our language technology initiatives, or work in computer vision and related areas, the institute has built a strong foundation in research that serves social causes. I believe the next major goal for India — and for IIIT Hyderabad — is to move toward technological sovereignty. Today, we depend heavily on global corporations for almost every layer of our digital infrastructure – from cloud services and operating systems to semiconductors and enterprise applications.

A recent AIC-IIITH research report highlighted that less that 0.2% of India’s annual CSR funds go towards innovation. This prompted a roundtable discussion of related stakeholders to brainstorm on the existing gaps and suggestions on how CSR can evolve from a mere duty to a catalyst for innovation and impact. Below are the highlights. When India’s startup ecosystem crossed 90,000 registered ventures, it became clear that innovation had firmly taken root in the country’s economic imagination. Yet, despite this explosion of ideas and enterprise, one question lingers: why are India’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds – running into tens of thousands of crores each year – not flowing toward the country’s innovators? It’s a paradox hiding in plain sight. The law already allows it. Schedule VII of the Companies Act explicitly lists technology incubators and research as eligible areas for CSR spending. And yet, less than 0.2% of India’s annual CSR corpus finds its way to startup innovation. These were the findings of AIC-IIITH’s recent research.