The fitness landscape in India has evolved over the last few decades and how. At first, there were the traditional akhadas and the vyayam shalas frequented by wrestlers. With a rise in lifestyle diseases, and a focus on preventive health, the traditional setting has since given way to the likes of crossfit boxes, specialised studios and smart gyms. And the fitness story does look familiar – smartwatches track steps, apps calculate calories, and gym-goers check their phones between sets. But beneath this digital sheen lies a quieter reality. According to the ethnographic study titled, “Everyday HCI of Adaptive Fitness: The Bricolage of Self-Tracking in Urban India”, authored by Shivam Singh, Raagav Ramakrishnan and Chetan Mahipal under the guidance of Prof. Nimmi Rangaswamy, Indians are not simply following what their fitness apps tell them. Instead, they are constantly negotiating, adjusting, and even ignoring the data.

The Information Technology Development Agency (ITDA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with IIIT-H. The agreement was signed by IIIT-H Director, Dr. Sandeep Shukla and ITDA Director, Alok Pandey. Under this collaboration, experts from IIIT-H will assess the state’s IT infrastructure, conduct research, and identify gaps. Their recommendations will help improve the systems and strengthen cybersecurity. This partnership marks an important step toward enhancing innovation, research, and capacity building in the state – bringing together ITDA’s vision for digi-transformation and IIIT-H’s academic and technological expertise. The agreement was signed by Prof Sandeep Shukla, Director, IIIT-H, and Shri Alok Pandey, Director, ITDA, in the presence of IT Minister Shri Pradeep Batra, IT Secretary Shri Nitesh Jha (IAS), Shri Ashish K Upadhyay, CISA, CISSP (DGM), and other distinguished members.

Accidents in high-risk industrial environments are an occupational hazard but what is disconcerting is that they often go unnoticed. A new wearable safety system developed by IIIT Hyderabad’s Centre for VLSI and Embedded Systems Technology aims to change that. In sprawling industrial landscapes like thermal power plants, oil refineries, construction sites, danger is often part of the job. Thousands of workers move through complex, high-risk environments every day, equipped with helmets, gloves, boots, and harnesses. But when something goes wrong, those protections can only go so far. What happens when no one sees the accident? That’s the problem Prof. Abhishek Srivastava and his team have set out to solve. Industrial accidents are more common than most people realize and more critically, they’re not always immediately reported. In many cases, help arrives late not because it isn’t available, but because no one knows something has gone wrong.