Through the ‘She Can’ social initiative taken up as part of the annual Tech Festival Shaastra, the IIT Madras students provided career guidance counselling to girls from schoSols and college across India.

This online campaign of IIT Madras students was intended to help them adapt to the ‘New Normal’ created by the COVID-19 pandemic.

This year, even being constrained by the pandemic, the IIT Madras students came up with a brilliant idea of ‘She Can,’ said Professor Faruque Ali who is faculty advisor for Shaastra 2021.

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‘Initially, it felt to be an ambitious project, but IIT Madras students pulled all the strings and made it a reality.’

This is a campaign where we all need to be part of and I am happy that IIT Madras students have taken it up.

I congratulate IIT Madras students’ team and thank all to be a part of the initiative, said Professor Shaikh.

Among those who took part in the discussion were Professor Preeti Aghalayam, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Madras, Ms. Roopa Karemungikar, Vice President of Customer Value, HighRadius, Ms. Vandhana Ramanathan, Co-founder of Wsquare, and Ms. Jagadharini SampathKumar, Former VP National Stock Exchange of India Limited.

Panel discussion conducted to launch the campaign of IIT Madras students touched upon women empowerment topics in multiple fields and helped the listeners gain valuable insights into how to navigate the corporate world.

It also discussed on dealing with obstacles in a career in technology and develop the skills needed to take up leadership roles in their lives.

The IIT Madras students organized three career guidance sessions for over 190 girls from schools across the country.

The guidance sessions by IIT Madras students yielded good response.

With the help of career counsellors, these sessions reduced the percentage of students confused about their future plans from 80.2 per cent to 26 per cent.

In addition, leaders in entrepreneurship interacted with around 200 college girls across the country as a part of the campaign by IIT Madras students.

They highlighted the multiple opportunities available for women and motivated them to follow their passion.

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As much as 58.9 per cent of the students felt that they learned about new opportunities they would not have found out about otherwise and 59.6 per cent felt an increase in their confidence and motivation levels after the session.

Speaking about the objectives behind the initiative by IIT Madras students, Neha Mahesh, Student Coordinator (Public Relations Team) Shaastra 2021 said since the last couple of decades, the growth that gender equality has brought in society is truly inspirational.

Besides, we observed that it is essential to elevate the prevalent perception of financial literacy and career guidance among women and girls, said Neha Mahesh.

‘The ‘She Can’ initiative tries to contribute our hand at promoting this awareness at a very young age by connecting with various schools and NGOs around the city,’ said Neha.

Students are also creating awareness about essential financial concepts such as ‘budgeting’ and ‘banking’ in the upcoming months.

Updates about the ‘She Can’ campaign will be shared on the following social media channel – ‘https://www.instagram.com/p/CJldUb1Ah6Q/’

The training program was conducted by IIT Guwahati in collaboration with the Indian Register of Shipping (IRS).

Broader impact

IIT Guwahati director Prof Devendra Jalihal highlighted broader impact of this initiative.

We are proud to partner with IRS to drive innovation and capability development in these fields, he said.

Program

The program was conducted at the Neel Diving Academy in Kochi, where trainers from both IRS and TIH IIT Guwahati delivered comprehensive theoretical and practical sessions.

Participants engaged in rigorous underwater welding exercises and underwent a series of technical evaluations. The quality and safety of their work samples were assessed against stringent standards, following which participants were certified for their proficiency in underwater welding, say sources from IIT Guwahati.

This certification program aligns with the vision of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ (Self-Reliant India) by building local expertise in underwater wet welding—a skill crucial for maintaining India’s offshore and maritime infrastructure, he said.

Workforce

Dr. Asokendu Samanta, Divisional Head of R&D at IRS, added, this program equips the workforce with vital underwater wet welding and deep diving skills, which are essential for maintaining India’s oil, gas, and shipping infrastructure.

Commitment

IIT Guwahati is committed to nurturing talent and empowering individuals with the knowledge and skills necessary to make meaningful contributions to the nation’s progress.

Through initiatives like this, the institute not only addresses critical industry needs but also contributes to the holistic growth and development of India’s workforce.

IIT Guwahati has retained the 7th position among the best engineering institutions of the country, 9th position in ‘Overall’ and 10^th position in ‘Research’ Categories in the ‘India Rankings 2024’ declared by the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) of the Union Ministry of Education.

IITG has achieved rank 87 in the SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure) globally in the Times Higher Education (THE) Impact Rankings 2024 and is the only academic institution in India that occupied a place among the top 100 world universities – under 50 years of age – ranked by London-based Times Higher Education (THE) in 2014 and continues to maintain its superior position even today in various International Rankings.

IIT Guwahati gained rank 32 globally in the ‘Research Citations per Faculty’ category and overall 344 rank in the QS World University Rankings 2025.

Among other frontier areas of research and innovation, IIT Guwahati is working towards augmenting critical science research initiatives in Genomics, Developmental Biology, Health Care and Bioinformatics and Flexible Electronics, among numerous other areas.

Also, IIT Guwahati ranks 6th globally in Sustainable Development Goal 7 (Affordable and clean energy) of the Times Higher Education Impact Rankings 2023. IIT Guwahati has been also ranked 2nd in the ‘Swachhata Ranking’ conducted by the Govt. of India.

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