A recent Mongabay-India report highlights the growing threat of riverine heatwaves and their impact on ecosystems, biodiversity, and water quality. Riverine heatwaves are defined as periods where daily mean river water temperatures exceed the 90th percentile threshold of the locally defined and seasonally varying river temperatures, for at least five consecutive days. Researchers from International Institute of Information Technology Hyderabad contributed insights on rising river water temperatures in Indian catchments and the urgent need for interdisciplinary climate research and river restoration strategies. Rehana Shaik, head of the Hydroclimatic Research Group, noted that while short-duration temperature increases are considered heat spikes, limited river temperature data remains a major challenge in understanding riverine heatwaves in India. The group is working to address these gaps through focused hydroclimatic research.

For many academic leaders, the divide within India’s higher education system is no longer subtle, it is structural. At National Technology Day (NTD) 2026, Sandeep K Shukla, Director, IIIT Hyderabad argues that India is not merely witnessing a two-tier education structure, but a deeply fragmented multi-tier system shaped by unequal funding, coaching culture, and broken school education foundations. According to Shukla, the concentration of public investment among premier institutions like IITs and NITs has widened disparities across the broader university ecosystem. At the same time, he points to the rapid expansion of private institutions that often prioritise commercial outcomes over educational quality. “The bigger problem,” he notes, “starts at the school level.” From unequal access to quality schooling to expensive private coaching ecosystems, Shukla believes India’s innovation ambitions are being constrained long before students enter universities.

Speaking at Marking tech day – Hyderabad way, Prof. Ramesh Loganathan says: In the late 1990s, when the city was barely present on the IT map, there were proactive efforts to attract product R&D companies. Very quickly, the city became home to majors like Microsoft, Oracle, and others. That formed the grounding for an industry steeped in deep tech and product engineering, unlike cities that were centred primarily around services. Alongside this, the city has a strong tech education system and a deep research ecosystem. It has the largest number of government research labs, a leading IIT, and one of the country’s strongest AI research groups at IIIT-H, along with a globally ranked business school. IIIT-H has grown into a top-ranking research institution in the country and a leading centre for AI research in Asia. It has played a key role in providing talent to major tech companies while also co-creating emerging tech solutions through funded research projects.