IIT Bombay had the pleasure of hosting Mr. Rajesh Agarwal, Hon’ble Chief Secretary, Government of Maharashtra (GoM), on 19th January, 2026, along with his delegation comprising Mr. Virendra Singh, IAS, Secretary, GoM; Mr. Parimal Singh, IAS, Project Director, Nanaji Deshmukh Krishi Sanjeevani Prakalp; Ms. Richa Bagla, IAS, Principal Secretary, Accounts & Treasuries; Ms. Sapna Kapoor, Deputy Director General & SIO, National Informatics Centre (NIC); Ms. Sneha Lotankar, Senior Technical Director, NIC; Mr. Gangashankar Singh, NIC; Mr. Sachin Belose, CTO, MahaIT (Maharashtra IT Corporation Ltd.); Mr. Prathamesh Raut, Consultant, MahaIT; Ms. Simran Bansal, Consultant, IT Office and Mr. Rishikesh Shirke, Consultant, Chief Secretary’s Office.

Prof. Shireesh Kedare, Director, IIT Bombay welcomed the delegation in the presence of Prof. Milind Atrey, Deputy Director (Academics, Research and Translation); Prof. Sachin Patwardhan, Dean (Research and Development) and Prof. Leena Vachhani, Associate Dean (R&D), together with Professors-in-Charge, faculty and staff from various IIT Bombay centres.

During the visit, Mr. Rajesh Agarwal toured the Center for Semiconductor Technologies (SEMIX), the Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE) and the IIT Bombay Research Park, where he engaged with faculty and staff on strategic AI initiatives. Concurrently, the remaining members of the delegation interacted with the BharatGen team at IIT Bombay.

The visit enabled substantive discussions on strengthening collaboration in education, startups, translational research and innovation; fostering academia-industry partnerships and exploring the deployment of IIT Bombay’s sovereign LLM, BharatGen, across key sectors to accelerate India-centric innovation and societal benefit.