This IIIT Hyderabad Masters student has recently been named to Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia 2026 for Cognitii, his AI-powered startup operating at the intersection of education, healthcare, and assistive technology, which has built India’s first AI and human infrastructure layer for special education. For Souvik Ghosh, a final-year MS by Research student at IIIT-H, an early morning message would forever be etched in his memory. He woke up in his Kolkata home a few weeks ago, to find his phone flooded with missed calls from co-founders, Jhillika Trisal and Falguni Shrivastava. Their startup, Cognitii, had featured in the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia list in the Social Impact category. The challenge wasn’t in processing the news, but explaining to his parents why it mattered. “Coming from a middle-class family, the first thing I had to do was help them understand why Forbes was such good news,” he recalls with a smile. The AI innovation combines technology and expertise of diverse stakeholders to help schools and governments identify, support, and track at-risk special children.

As India stands at the crossroads of technology and nation-building, Prof Rajeev Sangal stresses why AI must go beyond innovation for innovation’s sake. It must serve a larger national purpose. We need to build an India-led AI ecosystem rooted in inclusion, language accessibility, education, healthcare, meaningful employment, and the solving of real-world problems. Despite all the hype around AI today, India still lacks a clear AI vision. We need a radical strategy that seeds AI work across thousands of local problems. By identifying relevant AI applications, investing seriously in data collection, and combining this with innovative approaches to machine learning, we can not only solve our own challenges but also create world-class AI manpower. This, in turn, can lead to the emergence of hundreds — perhaps even thousands — of AI startups. A part of this strategy has already been tested through Mission Bhashini, India’s first AI mission, which successfully developed Indian language speech-to-speech translation technology.

Combining drones, machine learning, and vernacular architecture, EERC is redefining how India approaches structural resilience. The focus is on preparedness, prevention, and preserving heritage structures. Long before algorithms, simulations, and seismic codes existed, traditional Indian architecture had already mastered resilience. Today, at the EERC at IIIT Hyderabad, researchers are revisiting that wisdom through AI, drones, computer vision, and machine learning to understand how structures survive disasters. From studying heritage buildings and earthquake-resistant vernacular homes to developing AI-based crack detection systems and open-source structural assessment tools, the centre is building a bridge between ancient engineering intuition and modern computational science. In conversation with assistant professor Dr Jofin George, CE explores how technology and traditional knowledge are redefining structural safety and earthquake resilience in India.