CHENNAI: The two-day technoVIT’26, the flagship international technical festival of the Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) Chennai, was inaugurated on Thursday, with more than 15,000 participants from India and 14 countries taking part.

The festival, being held on September 3 and 4, features over 140 events and is themed ‘Inclusive Innovations’.

Aleksandr Fomin, Deputy Consul General, Consulate General of the Russian Federation in Chennai, was the chief guest, while Arulselvam Harikrishnan, Vice-President – Operations & Logistics, Daimler India Commercial Vehicles, was the guest of honour. VIT Founder-Chancellor G Viswanathan presided over the inaugural function.

Fomin said technoVIT brings together students and young professionals in engineering, robotics, coding, design, and other fields. He stressed that innovation should be accessible to people across disciplines and backgrounds and should ultimately improve lives.

“Technology should help us address shared challenges such as energy security, healthcare, environmental sustainability, transportation, food security, and access to education,” he said, adding that such challenges transcend national borders.

Harikrishnan said innovation and inventions would not be sustainable without a clear purpose, which should be centred on humanity.

Viswanathan said science and technology were essential for economic growth and called for greater use of technology to improve productivity in sectors such as agriculture and manufacturing.

VIT Vice-President GV Selvam said technoVIT was organised “by the students, of the students and for the students”, providing them opportunities to develop leadership skills.