One of the largest cultural festivals in India, Saarang attracts over 50,000 people from around the
country.
Held in January every year, Saarang is commonly acknowledged as the mother of all cultural
festivals, a reputation that the Institute is honour-bound to uphold.
This five-day festival is the traditional meeting place for the young and the young at heart.
The mainstay of Saarang has always been the five professional shows. Past editions have seen
performances by prominent classical artists such as Balamurli Krishna, Ustad Bismillah Khan and
Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, as well as international bands such as Opeth, Anathema, Architects and
Skidrow.
Saarang has also played host to light music shows by Shaan, KK, Benny Dayal, Udit Narayan, Sonu
Nigam, Sunidhi Chauhan and Vishal-Shekhar.
Sangam serves as the conglomeration of all cultural clubs at the Institute, making it one of the largest student-run teams in the Institute. Sangam houses within it 16 different clubs, each catering to a unique and a niche art form and audience. Together these clubs redefine the cultural landscape of IIT Madras.
Shaastra—the Sanskrit word for science—is a celebration of free thought and a devotion to the
engineering spirit. It offers the chance to get a glimpse of the most cutting-edge technology that
is currently popular all over the world.
For the organizers and participants from various technical, scientific, and management
backgrounds, Shaastra has always been a very beneficial learning experience.
Intense competitions, lectures, and a variety of educational courses provided by Shaastra
provide a stage for participants to demonstrate their knowledge and enthusiasm. Watch out for
competitions that put contestants' mettle to the absolute limit, such as Fire and Ice, Shaastra
Junior Quiz, RoboWars, BrandWars, Hackathons, and others.
As a child, we admire; as adolescents, we aspire; as adults we perspire; and as responsible,
successful citizens, we inspire. It is this inspiration that one gets in these lectures.
One cannot achieve big without listening to people who have done it before. It is as they say; we
shall not live long enough to learn from our own mistakes. We shall have to learn from others' too.
The Extra Mural Lectures in IITM, cover diverse topics, and bring in people from across the
globe; those people, who have been pioneers and who have received the highest honours in their
fields.
Where else do you get to interact with people so knowledgeable, so experienced and so successful?
The faces that you see on a television screen are brought before you to talk. These lectures unfold
tales of unfathomable perseverance and unmatched genius.
When there is an inter-IIT meet for sports and culturals why not for tech enthusiasts?
Inter IIT tech meet is for the big brains of the country to showcase their talent and raise the name
of the institution they come from. which usually happens in the even semester and is hosted by
anyone of the participating IITs.
Tech meet gives you a chance to meet the most brilliant tech enthusiasts in the country and
explore the projects.
The events give you a chance to initiate, interact and innovate. initiatives. It helps in fostering
the spirit of innovation and igniting young minds towards a more technologically and economically
viable future.
It sets an ideal platform for collaboration among the students to create impactful technology and
knowledge transfer across the student community.
Tech-Soc was first born as a tournament where hostels could compete against each other in all
tech-related events for points, power and glory.
Together with Schroeter and Lit Soc, it forms the three independent "Big" trophies that hostels
battle for every year.
It has now become the umbrella under which all tech-related student initiatives will be encouraged
and nurtured.
In the odd semester, various informal sessions like "Fundae" and Tech interaction sessions will
also be organized so that
the freshmen can learn about the tech world they are about to enter.
We always have something or the other thing going on for the tech-savvy. You get to dirty your hands
and build stuff on your
own or participate in tech quizzes or watch the spectacle as the different hostels battle it out in
tech soc.
Lit Soc is an epic year-long inter-hostel battle royale. All the hostels go head to head over the
course of the academic year and battle
it out with each other trying to win different competitions to get the necessary points to take the
Lit Soc cup home at the
end of the year and be crowned champions.
The various events have different points and special points are awarded to enthusiastic and
talented freshers!
Freshie events will also be held towards the beginning of the odd semester to initiate them into Lit
Soc and give
them a feel of how intense and enjoyable Lit Soc events can be.
It is a matter of great pride for hostel to win Lit Soc and as a resident of your hostel; it will be
up to you to help your hostel win it.
A General Championship (GC) is awarded to the team with the best performance in both the events.
The seven old IITs take turns, hosting the Meet in all splendor. This fierce competition for pride,
prestige and glory, equally embraces a great spirit of sportsmanship, which mark these moments as
the
most cherishing memories of an IITian's life.
The Meet is perhaps the only event, which provides an
opportunity to meet and interact with students from the other IITs. IIT Madras has had its major
share of glory, excelling continually at these games and winning the General Championship (GC)
eleven times in a row in the past. With over 19 wins in 51 Inter IIT Sports Meets so far, IIT
Madras has propounded itself as an unstoppable force in the history of the games, thanks to the
brilliant performance from the students.
The Inter IIT Cultural Meet is a prestigious competition where cultural contingents from different IITs showcase their talents. IIT Madras's Cultural Contingent, led by Cultural Affairs Secretaries and a dedicated Contingent Head, participates in various artistic disciplines. The contingent includes specialized club teams, each guided by appointed Club Captains who lead practice sessions and nurture talent.
The selection process for the contingent is rigorous and occurs throughout the academic year. Team members are chosen based on their skills and commitment, with the Contingent Head overseeing everything from budgeting to practice schedules. The Cultural Affairs Secretary's Executive Committee, comprising 5 cores and 10 coordinators, supports these activities.
Notably, IIT Madras has been selected to host the Inter-IIT Cult Meet 5.0, with a specialized organizing team handling various aspects including sponsorship, hospitality, events, publicity, and facilities management.