Hi-tech Kumbh Mela next year in Nashik and Ratan Tata has a big role to play

If everything goes as planned, next year’s Kumbh Mela in Nashik, where millions are expected to congregate, may turn out to be much saner event than usual. This is because a few researchers from the Massachusets Institute of Technology are taking much pain to find out how technology can be used to bring about a method to the madness.

According to an earlier report in the DNA, these researchers had arrived in Nashik in July “to identify 50 areas where technology can be used for solutions to probable challenges during the Kumbhmela”.

A report in The Times of India today says the Ratan Tata Trust and Ratan Tata personally has been keenlyhelping out the Kumbhathon, which is an MIT Media Lab initiative to find solutions for the problems faced during the grand mela.

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For the uninitiated, women, children and aged get lost in the Kumbh Mela crowd; sometimes deceases spread due to the unhygienic surroundings. In 2013, at the Allahabad Kumbh Mela, 36 people were killed in a stampede in the railway station. The MIT researchers are trying to find a solution to these challenges.

“The Ratan Tata Trust has helped us in a big way, and Tata himself has taken a personal interest in Kumbhathon that is trying to solve real world problems,” MIT Media Lab associate professor Ramesh Raskar has been quoted as saying in the report.

According to the report, many start-ups are helping out the MIT team with the initiative.

The MIT researchers have already interacted with engineering college students and entrepreneurs to identify the problem areas. They are also holding workshops with the students in various places.