Imagine India

What happens when young people move beyond learning about sustainability and begin listening to the communities experiencing these challenges every day?

In this episode of Imagine India, we hear from SAGE Junior Ambassadors Avinash, Shristi and Divya about their experiences working with communities, exploring local challenges, and discovering what it really takes to turn knowledge into action.

The conversation explores waste, public health, science communication and community engagement, but goes beyond the issues themselves to ask a deeper question: what changes when we stop assuming we have the answers and start by listening?

The Ambassadors reflect on how their experiences challenged their assumptions, changed the way they think about awareness and action, and showed them that meaningful change is rarely about simply telling people what to do. It is about understanding context, building trust, asking better questions and working with communities.

The conversation also looks ahead. What should India look like ten years from now? For these young voices, progress is not simply about more technology, money or infrastructure. It is about building a society that is curious, empathetic, environmentally responsible and willing to take care of itself without becoming indifferent to everything around it.

Ultimately, this is a conversation about learning to listen, finding the space between knowing and doing, and what young people can teach us when science moves closer to society.

What happens when scientific discovery meets the realities of a farmer's field?

In this episode of Imagine India, we explore the journey from research to real-world agricultural solutions and why getting science into the hands of farmers requires much more than a promising discovery.

The conversation explores microbial diversity, soil health and sustainable alternatives, while asking a bigger question: how do we translate scientific knowledge into solutions that work across different crops, fields and farming contexts?

Our guests discuss the importance of testing research under real field conditions, building farmer awareness, developing affordable alternatives, and bringing scientists, farmers, government and industry together to move ideas towards adoption.

The episode also pushes back against our desire for simple answers to complex problems. As Shannon puts it, we have created a system that wants a “magic pill” but ecological approaches require us to understand the system itself.

Ultimately, this is a conversation about what it takes to make research useful and what happens when knowledge moves beyond the laboratory and into the communities it is meant to serve.

In this episode of Imagine India, we explore the Feedstock Project with Dr. Amit Arora (IIT Bombay), Dr. Lene Lange (LL Bioeconomy) and Shilpa Sonarwal (IIT Bombay). Together, they discuss how agricultural residues can be transformed into valuable feedstocks that create new livelihoods, strengthen rural economies and accelerate India's transition towards a circular bioeconomy.

The conversation examines why millions of tonnes of biological resources continue to go underutilised, how decentralized biorefineries and Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) could unlock new economic opportunities, and why international collaboration is essential to tackling interconnected challenges such as climate change, food security and biodiversity loss. Through the Feedstock Project, the guests demonstrate how research, entrepreneurship and community knowledge can come together to turn overlooked resources into lasting impact.

Looking ahead to 2036, they imagine an India where circularity is no longer a buzzword but a default design principle, where agricultural by-products fuel innovation instead of becoming waste, and where local communities play a central role in building a more resilient and sustainable future.

What does it actually take to fix India's water crisis — not in theory, but on the ground? In this episode, we sit down with three people working at very different points of the same problem: Dr. Indumathi Nambi (IIT Madras), Mayank Kumar (PhD fellow, IIT Madras), and Nandakumar (International Center for Clean Water).

Together, they unpack why water remains one of India's oldest and most stubborn challenges. The challenge arises not for lack of technology, but because of governance gaps, broken ownership structures, and systems that were never built to scale with India's sprawling cities. Mayank shares how growing up in Rajasthan, one of India's driest states, shaped his research into nutrient recovery from wastewater. Indumathi reflects on two decades of trying to close the gap between lab research and real-world policy. And NandaKumar makes the case for "people's water data", democratizing water measurement so communities own the problem, not just suffer from it.

The conversation moves from decentralized sanitation systems to the economics of "free" water, from circular nutrient recovery to a shared vision of what India could look like in 2036 — a country that treats water not as a resource to extract, but as a relationship to honor.

In this deeply thoughtful episode of Imagine India Fireside Chats, members of the echo network’s Nutrition consortium come together to explore one of modern India’s most painful contradictions: how a country rich in food, farming traditions, and biodiversity still struggles with widespread malnutrition!

Through honest conversations on indigenous foods, climate resilience, school nutrition, farmer livelihoods, and the fading connection between people and what they eat, Victor Afari-Sefa, Jyosthnaa Padmanabhan, and Kranti Yardi talks about how we need to create change from the ground up.

At its heart, this is a conversation about dignity, memory, health, and hope. It is time to reimagine food systems that nourish both people and the planet.

This episode brings together a multidisciplinary team working on a Biopackaging Consortia project led by the echo network. Featuring voices from academia, industry, and research—including Tridha Gajjar from National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, Anders from Technical University of Denmark (DTU), and Sunitha from LoopM Alternatives and Sreeraghavi, the PhD Fellow from NID — the conversation explores how agricultural waste can be transformed into sustainable packaging solutions.

What begins as a materials innovation project quickly expands into a much larger systems challenge. The team discusses the intersection of design, material science, agriculture, and the circular economy—highlighting how crop residue burning, plastic dependency, and lack of scalable infrastructure are deeply interconnected issues.

Together they unpack why plastics dominate (cost, durability, scalability), and why replacing them isn’t straightforward. Listen to the full episode here.

How do we build meaningful community engagement in large cities?
The 50th episode of Imagine India, with this year’s Fireside Chats, explores how the Forum Project is bringing together students, researchers, and communities to co-create solutions for real-world challenges.
In this episode, Prashanth N S and Kranthi Vysyaraju from the Institute of Public Health Bangalore, along with Nora Engel from Vrije University, the Netherlands, share insights on how collaborative, community-driven approaches can shape urban solutions across health, water, waste, and beyond.
By listening deeply, working across disciplines, and centering communities, the Forum Project is reimagining how sustainable change can be built together.
Tune in to the full episode to explore how ideas are being turned into action.

Today, we dive into one of the most urgent and often misunderstood topics of our time: disease surveillance.

Sandul Yasobant (Assistant Professor, Department of Public Health Sciences-IIPHG), Abbey Olsen (Assistant Professor, University of Copenhagen), and Poonam Vyas(SAGE Surveillance Fellow - IIPHG) sit down with Shannon to unpack why surveillance isn’t about control, but about preparedness and why real-time monitoring is essential if we hope to prevent the next pandemic rather than simply react to it.

In this thoughtful conversation, our experts break down complex ideas into clear, accessible language, addressing common myths and fears around data collection. They explore what surveillance truly means, who it serves, and how it protects communities.

The discussion then turns to building a stronger One Health surveillance system in India, one that recognises the deep interconnection between human, animal, and environmental health. Poonam emphasises the need for cross-disciplinary collaboration and meaningful community engagement, while Abbey reminds us that no system can function without trust at its core.

Listen to the full episode.

For 4 years, at the Imagine India Podcast, we have been listening to our changemakers and light-bringers imagine the India & world they dream of building. Now, it is time for us to share with you what our students and consortia members are doing to turn those dreams into a reality.

We’re excited to introduce Imagine India Fireside Chats—a new monthly series that takes you behind the scenes of impactful projects led by our students and consortia members. These conversations spotlight how knowledge is moving off the page and into real, on-ground action. Stay with us as these stories unfold.

For our first episode, we have with us, G. Ravikanth, Deepanjana Saha, and Sourya Das, who dive into the timely and critical theme of ecosystem valuation. They unpack what ecosystem valuation really means and explore how these ideas can be meaningfully integrated into policy and practice.

Three young voices—rooted in purpose and driven by hope—are taking on one of today’s most urgent challenges: waste management. In this episode, meet Sowndarya Acharya (SAGE PhD Fellow), Devyani Srivastava (SAGE Senior Ambassador 2025), and Smita Singh(SAGE Junior Ambassador 2025), as they share why they chose to focus on waste, segregation, and community awareness.

In conversation with host Shannon Olsson on the Imagine India podcast, they speak about the work they’re doing in their neighbourhoods, their city, and for the planet—proving that meaningful change often begins with informed, committed young citizens.

Tune in to hear three bright minds imagine a cleaner, more responsible India—one action at a time.