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Why you should attend ISF 2026

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Hear World Leaders in Science - Including Nobel Laureates

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Meet Subhanshu Shukla - India’s Newest Space Hero

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Watch an Original Theatre Drama Chronicling India's Space Journey

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Meet the Mind Behind Transformers - Ashish Vaswani

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Play Sci-Fi & AI Games - Win Prizes Worth ₹2 Lakhs

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Rethink Your Assumptions About Reality Through a Quantum Perspective

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Explore Science Exhibitions, Art, Theatre & Interactive Installations

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Witness Science Presented Like You've Never Seen Before

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Speakers

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Abhay

Karandikar

My Sessions
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Shivkumar

Kalyanaraman

My Sessions
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Shubhanshu

shukla

Astronaut

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)

First ISRO astronaut to visit the International Space Station

My Sessions
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Venki

Ramakrishnan

Nobel Prize Winner in Chemistry

My Sessions
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Ashish

Vaswani

Co-founder and CEO

Essential AI

Creator of Transformers that powers ChatGPT and beyond

My Sessions
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Nikku

Madhusudhan

Professor of Astrophysics and Exoplanetary Science

University of Cambridge

Mind finding life on other planet

My Sessions
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Eshan

Chattopadhyay

Associate Professor

Cornell University

Godel Prize Winner for Random Computation!

My Sessions
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Marcia C.

Barbosa

Professor of astrophysics and Exoplanetary Science

Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul

L’Oréal Laureate who decoded water’s secrets

My Sessions
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Speakers

Abhay Karandikar
Shivkumar Kalyanaraman
Shubhanshu shukla
Venki Ramakrishnan
Ashish Vaswani
 Nikku Madhusudhan
Dr. Eshan Chattopadhyay
 Marcia C. Barbosa
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550+

Speakers

450+

Events

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1,00,000+

Attendees

Over the past 6 editions

India Science Festival has seen

IMPACT

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Registration For India Science Festival 2026

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I'll attend India Science Festival 2026
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Abhay

Karandikar

linkedin.png
My Sessions
1581433870213.jpeg

Shivkumar

Kalyanaraman

linkedin.png
My Sessions
1581433870213.jpeg

First ISRO astronaut to visit the International Space Station

Shubhanshu

shukla

Astronaut

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)

linkedin.png
My Sessions
1581433870213.jpeg

Nobel Prize Winner in Chemistry

Venki

Ramakrishnan

linkedin.png
My Sessions
1581433870213.jpeg

Creator of Transformers that powers ChatGPT and beyond

Ashish

Vaswani

Co-founder and CEO

Essential AI

linkedin.png
My Sessions
1581433870213.jpeg

Mind finding life on other planet

Nikku

Madhusudhan

Professor of Astrophysics and Exoplanetary Science

University of Cambridge

linkedin.png
My Sessions
1581433870213.jpeg

Godel Prize Winner for Random Computation!

Eshan

Chattopadhyay

Associate Professor

Cornell University

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My Sessions
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L’Oréal Laureate who decoded water’s secrets

Marcia C.

Barbosa

Professor of astrophysics and Exoplanetary Science

Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul

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My Sessions

Speakers

Schedule

Venues

Horizon Theater (Auditorium)

Curiosity Field
(Kho Kho Ground)

Cosmos Hall
(Indrani Balan)

Wonder Space (Amphitheater)

EXPERT TALK

10:50 AM - 11:35 AM

Nolita Coelho (Vice President - Product, Paperpal at Cactus)

GAMES

12:30 PM - 2:05 PM

Experiments for kids (TIFR Mumbai)

PANEL DISCUSSION

2:20 PM - 3:05 PM

Good Data, Great Stories: Bringing Research to Public Understanding

Dr. Smita Jain (Science Communication Expert)

Dr. Karishma Kaushik (Science Communication Expert) 

Prof. Arnab Bhattacharya (Director, HBCSE)

Prof. GV Pavan Kumar (Professor, IISER Pune)


GAMES

3:10 PM - 4:45 PM

Grand Show

Science Activity Centre, IISER Pune

PANEL DISCUSSION

11:20 AM - 12:05 PM

Filling India's Lacunae of Non-Fiction Science Books

Dr. Vineeth Venugopal (Postdoctoral Researcher, MIT Boston)

Dr. Keshav Aggarwal (Assistant Professor, IIT, Bombay)

Nikhil Gulati (Writer, Illustrator)

Dr. Jhanvi Phalkey (Founding Director, Science Gallery Bengaluru)

BOOK DISCUSSION

12:10 PM - 12:55 PM

Nuances in Nonsense: Quirky Science Chronicles from India and the World

Karthik Venkatesh (Executive Editor, Penguin Random House India)

Upasana Sarraju (ISBF Fellow)

PANEL DISCUSSION

2:05 PM - 2:50 PM

Random, but Not Really: A Conversation About Applied Mathematics

Dr. Vishal Vasan (Associate Professor, ICTS-TIFR)

Udayan Kanade (CEO, Oneirix Labs)

Prof. Amit Apte (Professor, IISER Pune)

WORKSHOP

2:55 PM - 3:40 PM

Just-A-Minute (JAM)

Nukkad Theory

WORKSHOP

3:45 PM - 5:20 PM

Carbon Capture Champions: Ancient Art meets Climate Science

Dr. Pialy Ghanekar (Founder, Cell Savvy Group)

EXPERT TALK

10:50 AM - 11:35 AM

Prof. Arvind Gupta (Professor, University of Toronto)

EXPERT TALK

11:40 AM - 12:25 PM

Dr. Thomas Barlow (Director, Barlow Advisory)

EXPERT TALK

12:30 PM - 1:15 PM

Prof. Yashwant Gupta (Director, NCRA-TIFR)

EXPERT TALK

1:20 PM - 2:05 PM

Udaya Kumar (Honorary Director, The Mythic Society)

EXPERT TALK

2:20 PM - 3:05 PM

Prof. Maneesha Inamdar (Director, InStem)

PERFORMANCE

3:10 PM - 4:45 PM

SparkX: Startup Pitching Event

Invention Engine

PANEL DISCUSSION

4:50 PM - 5:35 PM

Systems That Think: Mathematical Insights meet AI Engineering

Prof. Nick Jones (Professor, Imperial College London)

Dr. Eshan Chattopadhyay (Associate Professor, Cornell University)

Dr. Srinath Sridhar (Assistant Professor, Brown University)

Prof. Debdeep Mukhopadhyay (Institute Chair Professor, IIT Kharagpur)

Dr. Neil Gaikwad (Assistant Professor, University of North Carolina)


PANEL DISCUSSION

11:20 AM - 12:05 PM

Next Generation of Semiconductor Innovators

Prof. Anshuman Nag (Professor, IISER Pune)

Prof. Souvik Mahapatra (Professor, IIT Bombay)

Dr. Ashish Arora (Assistant Professor, IISER Pune)


EXPERT TALK

12:10 PM - 12:55 PM

Dr. Rashmi Tripathi (IHFC, IIT Delhi)

EXPERT TALK

2:05 PM - 2:50 PM

Dr. Jani R Bolla (Royal Society University Research Fellow, Oxford University)

PANEL DISCUSSION

2:55 PM - 3:40 PM

Cracking the Olympiad's Code - India's Champions

Prof. Surhud More (Professor, IUCAA)

Dr. Neerja Dashaputre (Principal Technical Officer - Education, IISER Pune)

Ananya Ranade (TIFR Mumbai)

Rajit Gupta (IIT Bombay)

PANEL DISCUSSION

3:45 PM - 4:30 PM

The Last Mile of Innovation: From Labs to Markets

Cmde Amit Rastogi (Retd)  (Chairman and Managing Director, NRDC)

Dr. Priya Nagaraj (CEO, Pune Knowledge Cluster)

Prof. Ramesh Loganathan (Professor, IIIT Hyderabad)

Kunal Upadhyay (Co-founder, IIMA Ventures)

EXPERT TALK

4:35 PM - 5:20 PM

Prof. M S Santhanam (Professor, IISER Pune)

EXPERT TALK

11:40 AM - 12:25 PM

Randomness in Computing: Why Do We Care and Where Can We Get It

Dr. Eshan Chattopadhyay (Associate Professor, Cornell University)

PANEL DISCUSSION

12:30 PM - 1:15 PM

From Model to Market: Building Scalable AI Startups in India

Dr. Manish Gupta (Senior Director, Google Deepmind)

Saumil Shah (CTO, Haptik AI)

Anirudh Bhardwaj (CTO, Recur Club)

Maya Sherman (Head of Tech & Innovation, Embassy of Israel)

Shailendra Jha (Co-founder, Change Engine)


EXPERT TALK

1:20 PM - 2:05 PM

Dr. Srinath Sridhar (Assistant Professor, Brown University)

FIRESIDE CHAT

2:20 PM - 3:05 PM

Dr. Shivkumar Kalyanaraman (CEO, ANRF)
Sheel Kapoor (CEO, FAST India)

EXPERT TALK

3:10 PM - 3:55 PM

Prof. Debdeep Mukhopadhyay (Institute Chair Professor, IIT Kharagpur)

PANEL DISCUSSION

4:00 PM - 4:45 PM

Building India's Quantum Edge

Prof. Arun K. Pati (Director, QTECI)

Prof. Umakant D. Rapol (Professor, IISER Pune)

Dr. Bhaskar Kanseri (Associate Professor, IIT Delhi)

Dr. Kunj Tandon (CEO, I-Hub Quantum Technologies Foundation)

EXPERT TALK

4:50 PM - 5:35 PM

Lt Gen Dr. Subrata Saha (Former Deputy Chief of Army Staff)

HIGHLIGHT

5:45 PM - 7:00 PM

Shubhanshu Shukla (Group Captain and Test Pilot with IAF)

EXPERT TALK

11:20 AM - 12:05 PM

Building AI That Powers and Protects the Digital Workplace

Dr. Girija Narlikar (Director of Engineering, Google)

FIRESIDE CHAT

12:10 PM - 12:55 PM

Dr. Ashish Vaswani (Co-founder and CEO, Essential AI)
Varun Agarwal (Founder, FAST India)

PERFORMANCE

2:05 PM - 3:40 PM

The Best of Unbounded Science (BoUnSc)

EXPERT TALK

3:45 PM - 4:30 PM

Prof. Marcia Cristina Bernardes Barbosa (Professor, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul)

EXPERT TALK

4:35 PM - 5:20 PM

Dr. Kush Varshney (IBM Fellow at Thomas J. Watson Research Centre)

HIGHLIGHT

9:45 AM - 10:45 AM

Inauguration of India Science Festival 2026

PANEL DISCUSSION

10:50 AM- 11:35 AM

Rising Minds of India: A Dialogue on Excellence

Varun Aggarwal (Founder, FAST India)

Prof. Arnab Bhattacharya (Director, HBCSE)

Prof. Surhud More (Professor, IUCAA, Pune)

Ananya Ranade (TIFR Mumbai)

Rajit Gupta (IIT Bombay)

EXPERT TALK

11:40 AM - 12:25 PM

The Search for Life Beyond the Solar System

Prof. Nikku Madhusudhan (Professor, University of Cambridge)

DEBATE

12:30 PM - 1:15 PM

The World is an Illusion: A Quantum Perspective

Prof. Sourav Pal (Professor, Ashoka University)

Prof. Arun K. Pati (Director, QETCI)

Dr. Ashish Arora (Assistant Professor, IISER Pune)

EXPERT TALK

1:20 PM - 2:05 PM

Dr. Anuj Gupta (Founder and CEO, Gradient Advisors)

PERFORMANCE

2:20 PM - 3:05 PM

Portrait of Living Pictures: A Neuro-Aesthetic Dance Performance

Experience art with live display of audience's neuro-physiological data


ARISA Foundation

PANEL DISCUSSION

3:10 PM - 3:55 PM

Operation Sindoor: Steering India's Defence Strategy with Science

Lt Gen Dr. Subrata Saha (Former Deputy Chief of Army Staff)

Ashok Atluri (Chairman & Managing Director, Zen Technologies)

Shiv Aroor (Managing Editor, NDTV)

EXPERT TALK

4:00 PM - 4:45 PM

Dr. Manish Gupta (Senior Director, Google Deepmind)

EXPERT TALK

4:50 PM - 5:35 PM

Vivek Wadhwa (CEO, Vionix Biosciences)

EXPERT TALK

10:30 AM - 11:15 AM

Prof. Venki Ramakrishnan (Nobel Laureate, University of Cambridge)

EXPERT TALK

11:20 AM - 12:05 PM

Prof. Nick Jones (Professor, Imperial College London)

EXPERT TALK

12:10 PM - 12:55 PM

Dr. Samagya Banskota (Assistant Professor, Boston University)

AWARD FELICITATION

1:15 PM - 2:00 PM

S. Chandrasekhar Rising Indian Diaspora Scientist Award

Jayant and Mangala Narlikar Rising Indian Scientist in Science Communication Award

EXPERT TALK

2:05 PM - 2:50 PM

Dr. Rajesh Ingle (Vice-Chancellor, DES Pune University)

PANEL DISCUSSION

2:55 PM - 3:40 PM

Launch, Land, Lead: India's Space Odyssey

Prof. Yashwant Gupta (Director, NCRA-TIFR)

Srinath Ravichandran (Co-Founder, Agnikul Cosmos)

Dr. Srimathy Kesan (Founder, SpaceKidz)

Dhruba Chakrabarti (Founder, WhyCosmos)

EXPERT TALK

3:45 PM - 4:30 PM

Arvind Saraf (Partner, Microsoft)

PERFORMANCE

5:30 PM - 7:00 PM

Theatre Performance: India's Space Odyssey

Swatantra Theatre 

Narration by Akhilendra Mishra

MEDIA
APPEARANCE

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TESTIMONIALS

The festival feels very energetic and fresh, would love to be a part of it offline!

Richard Wiseman

I really enjoyed the conversation and the engagement from the audience. The audience wasn’t that large, but the question were insightful, which made me feel that I was engaging in a meaningful way with them.

Andrew Maynard

The organization was excellent. The media and publicity features, choice of speakers and sessions were outstanding.

Karishma Kaushik

I really liked the variety and creative angle of the talks. I also appreciate that the talks are available online via YouTube – I’ll be able to use some in future teaching.

Marina Joubert

It (India Science Festival) might prove to be a turning point in the history of our brilliant, perpetually interesting, mad, magical country of ours. We want India not only to excel in technology but become a world leader in basic science.

V.S. Ramachandran

Director Center for Brain and Cognition, University of California, San Diego

ISF is an interesting first step towards democratizing science. Definitely take this forward! More essential than ever in these times. Love the festivalization of science making it accessible, engaging and meaningful to diverse populations.

Payal Arora

Professor and Chair in Technology, Values and Global Media Cultures, Erasmus School of Philosophy

The large number of children and young adults who are eager to hear things. (were the best thing about ISF).

P. J. Narayanan

Professor & Director, IIT Hyderabad

"I had a great time at the festival the whole day–both at the talk and panel, as well as the almost nonstop interactions with students…wherever I went ;-) Hats off to you for putting this event together. It requires a certain level of delusion to even think of putting together a festival of this size, let alone pulling it off!"

Subbarao Kambhampati

Professor of Computer Science, Arizona State University

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