IIT Kanpur today launched ŚIKṢĀ (Study Centre for Indian Knowledge System for Holistic Advancement) the auspicious occasion of Akshaya Tritiya. The centre's mission is to promote, facilitate, and benefit from Indian Knowledge System related studies, research, content development, and outreach. The center will do research in the domains of Health & Wellness, Mathematics & Astronomy, Sanskrit & Linguistic studies, Consciousness studies, Archaeo-metallurgy & Materials, Darsanas, Acoustics & Music, and Water management systems. On this occasion, we had the privilege to have Prof. M D Srinivas, Chairperson, Centre for Policy Studies, Chennai, who gave a talk on "Indian Knowledge Traditions: Their Past, Present, and Future". He strongly urged that Indian knowledge traditions should form an integral part of the courses and research conducted in institutions of higher learning. The second technical talk was by Prof. Rama Jayasundar, Professor and Head, Department of NMR, AIIMS (All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi), on "Ayurveda: A Healthcare System Perfected over Time". She highlighted the main differences between Ayurveda with the Western school of medicine and explained how Ayurveda is a holistic system. 

We also launched the website https://www.iitk.ac.in/iks/ and the logo for the center. The logo has the words - Dhyeyavakya “ऊर्ध्वमूलमधःशाखम्" (“Ūrdhvamūlamadhaḥśākham”) inspired from the Bhagavadgītā. 

The long-term vision of the centre is to establish Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur at the forefront of Indian Knowledge System (IKS) studies.