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The month of October, 2025 started with a power packed event called #TheContinuum — a quarterly roundtable dialogue series on various…
Here an article on The Continuum, an event held in TISS – Mumbai, on 1st October, 2025, hosted by Tata Institute of Social Science and organized by Indigena Solutions. Read the whole event report here.
Like, share, or comment on your opinion on the site itself or share it personally, if you like it.
Memoirs of MKF-II, Bangkok
The Barak – Meghna River basin is known for its rich aquatic biodiversity in Asia, which is geographically shared between Bangladesh and Bharat (India) on today’s world map. The Barak River originates in the state of Manipur in Bharat (India) flows southwest towards Bangladesh to culminate into the Bay of Bengal, the river splits into the Surma River and the Kushiyara River at Bharat-Banga border, later join in Bhairab Bazar, in Bangladesh to wherein the name changes to Meghna River, which flows further south into the ocean. The basin is not just a human habitat for over 50 million people, but also has a rich biodiversity (terrestrial, aquatic as well as avian).
But the biodiversity is deteriorating consistently. Call it impact of urbanisation, or industrialisation or global warming or climate change, but the impact is massive. Flash floods, flash droughts, irregular rains, changing weather patterns and many other eventualities often referred to as climate catastrophe have become new normal, making people lose not just their livelihoods, but also become vulnerable to many Water & vector-borne diseases, loss of habitat, health and happiness.
Therefore, 1st ever Meghna Knowledge Forum in the year 2021, was organised with IUCN and Bridge being the primary Convenors, while Aranyak, Asian Centre for Development, Asian Confluence, Balipara Foundation, Brotee, IELA, Cuts International CNRS, NEHU, IEC, Nadi Adhikar Manch, Riverine People, University of Guwahati, Waterkeepers Bangladesh and Nature & Life Foundation were co-convenors. The prime donors for the event were Sweden Sverige, TROSA (Trans-boundary Rivers of South Asia), OXFAM and the Media Partners were Bangla Channel, The Business Standard and The Third Pole.
The second Meghna Knowledge Forum (MKF II) was hosted in the Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok, organised by International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in association with South Asian University (New Delhi), from July 23 to 25, 2025. The theme for MKF II was "Building Community and Ecosystem Resilience to Climate Change." The aim of the symposium was to create a learning exchange platform for governments, academics, civil society actors, private sector and youth on climate resilience, strengthening community livelihoods, and addressing poverty reduction in the Barak-Meghna River basin.
The Indian industry association partner this year was ASSOCHAM, which invite the private sector player working in the field of Water, wastewater treatment, Nature-based Solutions, Climate finance and climate technologies, due to which Vaidic Srijan LLP, along with Ira Sustainable Water Solutions, and Prime M2i Consulting got the opportunity to participate in the MKF-II in the month of July, 2025.
Our session was 2nd day of the forum, focused on "The Role of the Private Sector in Building Community Resilience to Climate Change". The session was moderated by Ms. Ashu Balhara from ASSOCHAM, who’s also been a part of Y4M, the session was chaired by Ms Bipasha Hossain, Country Representative, IUCN Bangladesh, while the industry of Bharat and Bangladesh was represented by Ms Shamima Akhter, Director - Corporate Affairs, Partnerships and Communications at Unilever Bangladesh Ltd, Bangladesh, Ms Sumaiya Tabassum Ahmed, Head of Sustainability, PRAN-RFL Group, Bangladesh, Syeda Afzalun Nessa, Head of Sustainability, Global Sustainability, The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited, Bangladesh, Ms Paranee Adulyapichet, Head of Public Affairs and Sustainability ASEAN Bayer, Thailand, Mr Swapnil Potdar, Founder & Director, Ira Sustainable Water Solutions, India and Mr Madhukar Swayambhu, Research Head, Vaidic Srijan LLP, India.
The session started with a presentation by Ms. Ashu on the works of ASSOCHAM, followed by formal opening of the session by the session Chair Ms Bipasha Hossain (IUCN Bangladesh), who set up the context and got the ball rolling. The first to speak from the industry side was Ms. Syeda Afzalun Nessa (HSBC – Bangladesh) who elaborated on nature-blended finance, followed by Mr. Madhukar Swayambhu (VSLLP- Bharat) on learning from the traditional knowledge system for a sustainable future of Water abundance. After the enlightenment on the sustainable coexistence in harmony with nature, the discussion moved towards recycling and reuse of Water by the industry, which was presented and elaborated by Mr Swapnil Potdar (ISWS). The Chair now moved to Ms Shamima Akhter (Unilever – Bangladesh) explaining the approach the Uni Lever is taking towards circular economy principles in usage and recycling of plastics in packaging, as well as industry partnership with local authorities, ULBs and sanitation workers to make the whole model work on grassroot levels. After her, the opportunity was extended to Ms. Paranee Adulyapichet to explain the approach of climate smart agriculture being taken by Bayer, Thailand. Ms Sumaiya Tabassum Ahmed from PRAN-RFL Group of Bangladesh was the next speaker in the session, who spoke on their corporate policy and approach towards low carbon footprint in their industrial ecosystem and how are they involving rural communities for material sourcing for creating livelihoods and sustainability in the last mile of their value chain. After this the floor was opened for audience questions, wherein a few very pertinent queries were raised for Ms Sumaiya Tabassum, Ms. Syeda Afzalun, Mr Swapnil Potdar and Mr. Madhukar Swayambhu, who answered the queries to the audience’s satisfaction.
We’re happy and proud to share our 1st representation in the Australian continent with support from The Thrive Project, which stands for creating a social impact and is on a mission to ensure the long-term well-being and ‘thrivability’ of all humanity. They research, educate and advocate sustainability practices making their volunteers, audience and people, learn about the best practices for a sustainable world. They publish monthly newsletters, podcasts, journals, have their own outreach programs, build sustainable businesses, organize community programs and even organize global Webinar series on various SDGs and topics related sustainability. This is how we met and collaborated on their Webinar Series #ThrivabilityMatters.
Sustainable development can only be in complete harmony with Nature, Environment and Ecology. When you take one step towards a perpetual growth and you don’t want to keep a plan-B, you’ve got to prepare for going only forward and that is possible when the forces of Nature stand by your side and help you propel forward. Ecology is not against Economics, if your roadmap is correct. Thus with a restored ecological balance of Water, Soil & Air, when you plan your economics in harmony with ecology, you fall upwards.
Ecological Economics to solve the global crisis is the key to sustainable development and solving the global crisis simultaneously like Climate Change, Global Warming, Water Crisis, Food Grain Crisis, Air Pollution, Water Pollution, and Wasteland reclamation.
Part 1 – Last 400 year of development has delivered a lot of comfort in human lifestyle, but this new evolved lifestyle has not been sustainable since the side effects have created a question marks on the existence of life on the planet with issues like climate change, global warming, sewage problems, depleting aquifer level, drinking Water crisis, air pollution, contaminated food chain, anti-microbial resistance, and so on.
Example is a hydro-electric plant or a dam. One Tehri dam generates 1000 MW of renewable energy – that’s technology, but it generate more greenhouse gases (CO2 & CH4) than the entire vehicular & industrial air pollution generated from the city of Delhi or Mumbai – that unsustainable.
Part 2 – Bharat has been the oldest surviving continuous civilization on Earth with a documented and archeological evidences for at least up to 25,000 years, which means we must’ve cracked the code of sustainable living.
For example – we have the only man made structure visible from outer space, built between Bharat & Lanka. That’s sustainable construction that has stood the test of time for at least over thousands of years.
Today all agri scientist believe that the soil fertility goes down with each crop, than how we have been cultivating and producing our food for such a long time from the same land mass? Because we knew how to increase the soil fertility with each crop. That’s sustainable living. And this is ecological farming.
Part 3 – The key to success is to build technologies in complete harmony with ecology & environment. When forces of Nature work towards development of our economy, that’s the ideal condition for perpetual growth. That is how Bharat contributed to 33% of the Global GDP till 17th Century.
Understanding and implementing the Vedic Science towards Entrepreneurship will create unprecedented opportunities for economic growth by solving global crisis like climate change, global warming, sewage problems, depleting aquifer level, drinking Water crisis, air pollution, contaminated food chain, anti-microbial resistance, and so on.
Part 4 – The key Entrepreneurial takeaway from this session is solving - Waterbody Rejuvenation, Wasteland Restoration and Ecological Farming with the basic Vedic Science Understanding that Water, Air and Soil are Alive ecologies not dead substances.
And this understanding is the core to convert the liabilities like Sewage, Air Pollution and decreasing Soil fertility into assets and create a cause of recession-free economy.
Part 5 – Some Case Studies of Waterbody Rejuvenation & Sewage Treatment
And Some more Case studies from Land Rejuvenation & Agriculture Growth
With over 100+ views per hour, consistently for 240 hours, and outstanding support from all sections, this video can officially be pronounced as viral having 27k+ views in merely 10 days. We’re happy and proud to share that the NeuSource podcast episode featuring our story (Vaidic Srijan LLP) on research in Vaidic Science and making of the startup journey that got aired on the same day, 18.04.2025, on which United Nations (UNESCO) honored Indian Scriptures of Bhagwat Gita and NatyaShastra as world heritage, and we deciphered some meanings in our interactions during the podcast. We’re thankful for the outstanding support from all of the viewers, supporters, partners, mentors and our well wishers, for gifting us with our first viral video. 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾
On Day 2 of the MKF II - convened on 23 - 25 July 2025 in Bangkok, Thailand, participants took part in a side event to discuss the role of t
Here's a link to my panel discussed during IUCN's MKF-II Summit at Bangkok, Thailand, held in July 2025.
The video starts after 20 minutes of waiting time, so either forward it or be patient.
WATER SUSTAINABILITY SUMMIT 2025
We are thankful to @PHDCCI for providing us with this wonderful opportunity to speak at the WATER SUSTAINABILITY SUMMIT 2025, on 21st August 2025 at Hall 12 A, Pragati Maidan, New Delhi.
We had an august audience including Dr Ranjeet Mehta (CEO and Secretary General, PHDCCI), Ms. Ramya Narayan (Editor, Water Today Magazine), Er. Qazi Syed Wamiq Ali (Technical Expert - Water Management, National Institute of Urban Affairs), Mr. Pratul Saxena (Member Secretary, CGWA (Guest of Honor & Session Head for the session on Understanding the Regulatory Landscape Water Compliance Frame works for Industry), Prof (Dr.) Manuj Bhardwaj (Former International Civil Servant - WTO & the UN) and many stalwarts and dignitaries from the Water industry. Although we missed Ms. Debashree Mukherjee, IAS (Secretary, IAS, (DoWR, RD & GR), Ministry of Jal Shakti, Government of India) and Dr. Nupur Bhadur, (Director, TERI) in the audience since they had to leave due to their prior commitments.
We’d like to thank @Mithilesh Kumar ji, @Mohit Kumar ji and @Shipra Shrishty ji for organizing the session in an excellent manner. We’d also like to take this opportunity to thank @Ankit Kumar ji from HCL Foundation, who moderated the session and asked some very pertinent question on NbS, giving us an opportunity to share our experiences for 60+ completed projects on NbS and 20+ ongoing projects, perspective of the people living in the project vicinity, impact created on environment, socio-economic status of the vicinity, biodiversity (aquatic, terrestrial and avian) conservation done, as well as the warm reception received from global communities during IUCN’s MKF, COP15: Victoria Falls, GSAT 2025: Changwon and SCSE 2025: Taipei, this year.
Shaastra, IIT-M, is an annual student run technical festival of the IIT-M (Indian Institute of Technology, Madras), wherein they dedicated a few days to move out of the study curriculum to interface and embrace the latest technological thoughts & practices from across the globe. They call global subject matter experts to talk, give presentations, interact with students and faculties, bring their knowledge and practical case studies to the table, they also organize workshops, competitions, exhibitions, apart from cultural program and entertainment. The festival is organized on global standards and has earned an ISO 9001:2015 certification too.
Within the Shaastra 2025 festival, there was yet another chapter of Future Cities Summit (FCS) this year, which shows the commitment of the festival towards embracing the hi-tech future and the technological advancements of tomorrow. FCS had been planned to explore and examine multidimensional approach towards the urban world of future, which will have all elements of energy, economy, transport & mobility, innovation & technologies like AI, AR, VR, ML, IoT, IT & ITES etc. apart form the livability and sustainability.
This year’s focus included subjects like Technology, AI and Data Integration, Legal and Ethical Frameworks for Smart Cities, Future of Urban Transportation, Cultural Preservation and Urban Development, Resilient Infrastructure and Climate Adaptation, and Renewable Energy Integration in Urban Environments.
Vaidic Srijan got an invite to speak in under the Resilient Infrastructure and Climate Adaptation domain, with our evidence-based case studies and success stories and the topic given to us was “Healthy Natural Resources for Sustainable Cities”. The 30 minutes presentation followed by Q&A session was conducted by Madhukar Swayambhu, Cofounder & research head of Vaidic Srijan LLP, and the case study of Moradabad Amrit Sarovars, was discussed in detail on how restoring the health of the natural Waterbodies in the Brass Capital of the country transformed the overall health, happiness and prosperity index of the city. How the urban flooding has been eradicated, Ground Water recharge has started happening, the Air Quality index has been transformed from worst in the state to healthy breathable Air, biodiversity conservation has happened, post-monsoon vector borne diseases outbreak has been mitigated and many awards and accolades have been earned by the city.
Bottom line discussed and described during the session was, the conventional approach of “cleaning” the Waterbodies is no solution, but simply postponement of the problem. A holistic and sustainable approach is the “restore the health” of the Waterbodies, since they are the ‘ecosystem service providers’ to their respective vicinities, not a mere reservoir or pool of Water. Another interesting aspect was to transform the Waterbody rejuvenation projects from “expense” to “revenue” through enabling them to earn the environmental credits (Water, Carbon, Sanitation, Emission and Biodiversity), which are tradeable commodities in the global markets.
The discussion was followed by a very rich and interactive Q&A session too.
The summit was graced by the presence of other eminent speaker from across the globe including Mr. Kok Chin Tay, the Chairman of the Smart Cities Network (a network of innovative solution and services providers for smart cities) and the Executive Director (ASEAN) for Smart Cities Council, Ms. Suchismita Goswami, is a PhD fellow from the Global Health Section at the Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Dr. Chinmay Hedge is the CEO and Co-Founder of Astrikos AI, an organization that delivers Actionable (Smart) IoT-driven Real-time Insights for Smart Cities, Mr. Ian Chew is the sole Founder of Greenie Web – an award winning Singapore ClimateTech startup that creates low-carbon computer code, Ms. Aswathy Dilip is the South Asia Director of Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP), Prof. Subir Sachdev, Herchel Smith Professor of Physics. Harvard University, Mr. Shravan Bendapudi is and the Co-Managing Director of Gensler’s Mumbai office, and Dr. Shailendra Jaiswal, Professor of Practice Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Madhya Pradesh Bhoj (Open) University (MPBOU), Director at CSJM Innovation Foundation, Director at Alyna International Private Limited, Member Board of Studies, Bihar Engineering University, Patna, Innovation Advisor to Toy Association of India, Lead Mentor to Srijan Sanchar and many more responsibilities in social, academia and industry sectors, being an Ex-ED of DRDO and having plethora of experience and exposure, that he’s chosen to give back to the society.
The event was also graced by the presence of Narayan Babu, Cloud Project Manager - NexTurn, Hyderabad, A Lakshmi, Data Science and Software Engineering professional, an IIT-M Alumni, Dr. R Ramasubbu, Former Joint Chief Environmental Engineer, TNPCB, Sudhakar Sundram, AVP, OCBC, Singapore, an IIT-M Alumni, Dr. Ar. K. Sundararaman, PhD. (IIT Madras), Aakash Pugazhendi, Architect Planner, Ecorys, Chennai, Ashwin Suresh, Urbanist & Architect, Arcadis, Chennai, RR Lokesh, founder of Ewebstore, an IIT-M Alumni, Abhishek Sivakumar, Level -1 Chess Coach, MD of CIT Connects and a Research intern at CIT, Challa Saraswathi Lalith, App Development Intern at Bharat Intern, Ex-S/W Engineer at JP Morgan Chase & Co., Brahmasoor Anirudhan, CTO & Cofounder of Ciprime Modus Pvt. Ltd. & IOWater, an IIT-M Alumini, Vishwajeet Kumar, Founder & CEO at Health Sathi and Origins Tribe, Shringesh S, Mechanical Engineer & Environmental Enthusiast, working for product development at Foruppo, Prem Kumar, an Urban Mobility Consultant with a background in Urban and Transport Planning, Kalki Chandramohan, mechatronics professional, Helen Vinnie, an Electrical and Electronics Engineering student, IIT-M, Amrutha P V, an Electrical and Electronics Engineering student, Apisheke, a Civil Engineering student, Sayed Najibullah Hashimi, Afghan National, ICCR Scholar-Indian Council for Cultural Relations Ministry of External Affairs Government of India and many more.
The three days event started on 4th January and concluded on 6th January, 2025. While Shaastra 2025 was spread over many hub in the IIT-M Campus, the FCS was conducted at TTJ Auditorium in the IC&SR block, while the exhibition happened at the adjoining KV Ground. The event was sponsored by IGBC, School of Sustainability (IIT-M), Gensler, L&T Edutech, Smart Cities Network, Centre of Excellence for Road Safety, IIT-M and Astrikos.
