Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), a global leader in IT services, consulting, and business solutions, has entered into a strategic partnership with the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IIT-K), to address one of India’s most pressing challenges: sustainable urbanization. AIRAWAT Research Foundation was set up by IIT Kanpur with support from the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs to rethink the way we build our cities. As part of this partnership, TCS and the Foundation will leverage AI and advanced technologies to tackle the challenge of urban planning at scale, in India.
As per the United Nations, by 2050, 68% of the world’s population is projected to live in urban centers, triggering a massive demographic shift from rural settlements to urban areas. The report states that by 2050 India will have added 416 million urban dwellers who will further drive economic growth. Issues related to urban mobility, energy consumption, pollution management, and governance could pose substantial challenges, particularly when urban expansion occurs without adequate planning and reaches an exceptional scale. TCS and IIT-K will collaborate to address these challenges that not only diminish quality of life but also threaten long-term sustainability and climate resilience.
Prof. Manindra Agrawal, Director, IIT Kanpur, said, “India’s cities are at the heart of the nation’s growth story and hold the potential to inspire sustainable urban futures. By harnessing Artificial Intelligence, data-driven insights, and systems-based thinking, we aim to transform our urban spaces into resilient, equitable, and climate-conscious ecosystems. The AIRAWAT Consortium at IIT Kanpur, working in close collaboration with Tata Consultancy Services, is advancing this vision by turning India’s urban challenges into global opportunities for innovation. Together, we are positioning India as a leader in shaping cities that balance growth with sustainability.”
With expertise in digital twin technologies, TCS will enable rapid ‘what-if’ scenario modelling, empowering urban planners to simulate and evaluate interventions before implementation. The long-term goal is to build cities that are resilient, equitable, and ecologically balanced, while deepening the understanding of and modeling the complex interactions between human activity and climate change.
Dr Harrick Vin, CTO, TCS, said “The future of urban living is rooted in our capacity to envision cities as dynamic ecosystems - adapting and evolving in response to the ever-changing needs of industry and society. Through this partnership with IIT Kanpur’s AIRAWAT Research Foundation, TCS will bring our deep capabilities in AI, remote sensing, multi-modal data fusion, digital twin, as well as data and knowledge engineering technologies to help solve today’s urban challenges and anticipate the needs of tomorrow’s cities. India stands at the cusp of redefining urban living, and we are laying the foundation for a new paradigm in urban planning and management—one that is predictive and profoundly human-centric.”
The Foundation is spearheading fundamental research on urban planning, moving away from traditional, centralised city management models to dynamic, system-based approach that treats cities as living organisms that grow and evolve. This partnership will harness cutting-edge AI and remote sensing technology to deliver real-world impact. It will enable the generation of high-resolution ambient air quality maps by integrating satellite and in-situ sensor data and predict and mitigate urban flooding using urban growth and land-use models. Green spaces can be optimised to create lower carbon footprint supporting climate action planning and policy development.
Prof. Sachchida Nand Tripathi, Project Director, AIRAWAT Research Foundation, said, “At AIRAWAT, we are not just deploying AI tools, we are building a global model of sustainable urbanization rooted in Indian innovation. Through this collaboration, we will address India’s most complex urban challenges—using AI-driven modelling, satellite and sensor networks, and digital platforms to improve air quality, forecast floods, optimize green spaces, and strengthen governance. Anchored in AIRAWAT’s mission and powered by TCS’ expertise, this partnership will make cities more livable, improving the lives of millions of urban dwellers while laying the foundation for healthier, more resilient, and future-ready communities.”
This latest collaboration between TCS and IIT-K builds on a long-standing partnership spanning a decade. It is a step forward in building AI-powered cities and marks a significant milestone in accelerating India’s sustainable urban future. TCS and IIT-K have partnered on joint research projects, collaborative education programs, internships, faculty development programs, and more. Together, we have established an educational and research ecosystem for Integrated Computational Materials Engineering (ICME) at the IIT-K campus. The leading institute for technological education is an academic partner as part of the TCS Co-Innovation NetworkTM (TCS COINTM), a platform driving industry-academia collaboration for pioneering world-class technological solutions.
