Pune (Maharashtra) [India], April 17: The IIT Alumni Council’s World Wisdom Workshop #1 of FY 2025-26 has highlighted an urgent need to accelerate technological developments to counter climate change, lifestyle diseases and potential risks from rogue frontier technologies like cyber-attacks, gene editing and agentic AI. Angel fund supported startups and eminent scientists working in this space looking for knowledge support and venture capital funding assistance may contact applications@iitalumnicouncil.org along with details of their past experience, research papers and patents. The call for proposals is open to members of IIT Alumni Council, alumni next members (family members of IIT Alumni Council members) and Distinguished Fellows or Corporate member supported entities. Last date for receipt of proposals is April 30, 2025.
Human dominion on Earth may end sooner than anticipated due to natural disasters exacerbated by climate change and the potential for AI-enabled gene editing to create new species. While investigating feasible alternatives—underwater, off-planet, and outside of large metropolitan clusters—it is imperative to reduce these hazards. The ramifications of unbridled advancements in biotechnology and agentic AI may be underestimated by policymakers, especially in rich countries. We must use assistive AI, cobotics, and traditional knowledge to strengthen human resilience on both a mental and physical level in order to combat new rogue technologies that have the potential to be even more devastating than nuclear weapons. Humanity might be wiped out in a matter of days by a single lab-generated virus, like COVID.
The four-day Solace2Self workshop, organized and led by Parag Shah, Distinguished Fellow of the IIT Alumni Council in analytical algorithms, brought together IT experts, young IITians, Alumni Next, programmers, doctors, and intellectuals. The course represents Shah’s longstanding dedication to introspective learning and is based on his 25-year methodology for improving inner clarity and cognitive regeneration. Shah, who won the Global COVID Test Optimisation Challenge in 2020, is also renowned for his IIT days when he was able to play chess while wearing a blindfold.
The stimulating program examined the role of fate and free choice in human behavior by drawing on quantum research. There was broad agreement that countries like India must adopt local remedies to protect future generations due to unrestrained entropy and environmental indifference on the part of some countries. According to Swami Suryanil, a 1993-born PhD candidate in artificial intelligence, “this includes urgent exploration of underwater and surface habitats, net-zero technologies, micro-nuclear solutions, mass afforestation, and disruptive shifts in preventive healthcare.” He questioned humanity’s place in the larger cosmic perspective and examined how consciousness can oppose agentic AI in one-on-one encounters.
Jalmeen Orchard Hill, a tranquil campus tucked away in the Western Ghats and only 30 minutes from the Mumbai Expressway, served as the venue for the 100-hour course. The purposefully planned site, which has more than 5,000 fruit trees, will now be the permanent location for next Solace2Self courses. As the owner and former chief physician of a hospital with more than fifty intensive care units, Dr. Minakshi Borate, Chairperson of the Samarth Foundation and Campus Host at Jalmeen, offered her viewpoint: “There is no point taking a job that destroys your marriage or using a medication that affects your kidneys to treat a headache.
The medical system based on components has failed. Both the body and the brain require a serious refresh. A scientifically proven wellness program that combines traditional knowledge with modern technologies is long overdue, particularly in light of the startling increases in strokes, developmental abnormalities, lifestyle diseases, and infertility.
Dr. Srinivas Padmanabhuni, a 1990 IIT Kanpur Gold Medallist and Distinguished Fellow of the IIT Alumni Council, stated that “the human mind must reset and upgrade—enhancing its capabilities, reducing stress, improving wellness, and leveraging assistive AI for productivity” as self-learning, self-programming machines become more common. He will be in charge of the workshop’s second iteration.
Our greatest instrument for controlling rogue inventions is technology, which is essential for everything from socioeconomic development to healthspan. In the new global order, a country’s standing will be determined by its leadership in frontier technology. When Deeptech startups receive the proper training, common practices, and support, innovation flourishes. This requirement is provided by the MegaSpheres initiative’s World Wisdom Workshops. We urge further alumni to emulate hosts such as Parag Shah. According to Ravi Sharma, President and Chief Volunteer of the IIT Alumni Council, “As a non-profit organization that mobilizes financial and technological resources for societal good, we view the accelerated development of such technologies as not just important, but essential.”
About MegaSpheres and World Wisdom Forum
The world is at a turning point: while technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and gene editing pose a threat to the future of human agency, climate change threatens the equilibrium of the planet. We require a new operational foundation, not just another system modification. MegaSpheres provides a living matrix for transformation that is ethical, regenerative, and forward-looking. Its yearly summit, the World Wisdom Forum (WWF), brings together scientists, technologists, innovators, stewards, and vishwagurus to reflect, realign, and create new paradigms.
Through World Wisdom Workshops (WWW), WWF, the interactive layer of MegaSpheres, establishes the yearly compass and maintains its continuity throughout the year. These touchpoints enable resilient systems to establish themselves by putting vision into practice through labs, residencies, retreats, and dialogical formats.
“World Wisdom Workshops are gateways to MegsSpheres, a broader transformational realm. When carefully chosen, they do more than just provide insight; they also engage our involvement in creating the future. With WWF as its yearly launchpad, MegaSpheres has given us a unified framework that combines introspection, innovation, and systemic welfare. The IIT Alumni Social Impact Fund Convenor, Satish Mehta, stated, “As the first World Wisdom Forum approaches, our movement reaches a greater coherence—an inflection point where intention, insight, and innovation entrain to build a resilient and regenerative future.”
About IIT Alumni Council
The largest worldwide association of alumni from all 23 IITs and affiliated institutions is the IIT Alumni Council, which was established in 2019. By promoting multidisciplinary research, innovation, and public efforts in sustainability, health, and frontier technologies, it ignites India’s technological renaissance. It propels technologically enabled solutions to societal problems by connecting entrepreneurship, capital, knowledge, and expertise. www.iitalumnicouncil.org
