As India’s employers race to keep pace with an AI-driven transformation of work and as industry studies warn of a widening gap between the skills the economy needs and the talent available. MIT India (Maharashtra Institute of Technology) today brought its flagship Industry–Institute Future Summit (IFS) 2026 to Mumbai, convening over 500 delegates to turn that conversation into collaboration, deal-flow and future-ready talent.

Mahesh Goudar, Digvijay Karad – Group Director, MIT SDE & VGWS; Mangal Prabhat Lodha – Hon. Cabinet Minister, Govt. of Maharashtra; Sheetal Kumar Jain – Corp. Relations, MIT Engg

Addressing the gathering, Shri Mangal Prabhat Lodha, Hon’ble Cabinet Minister of Skill, Employment, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Government of Maharashtra, said, “There is no shortage of jobs in Maharashtra; the real challenge before us is the skill gap. Education and a degree are important, but their value is limited unless they are matched with the skills industry needs. I commend MIT India for its dedication to learning and for the seriousness of its efforts in skill development, and I laud its initiatives in bringing together industry and academia. Government cannot achieve this alone, it is when institutions like MIT work alongside government that real change is driven.”

His remarks came against the backdrop of Maharashtra’s expanding skilling agenda from the modernisation of ITIs into industry-linked skill hubs to large-scale, investment-led job creation across the state.

Mr. Digvijay Karad, Group Director, MIT School of Distance Learning and VGWS, said, “MIT India has spent four decades building an ecosystem, not merely institutions and IFS 2026 is where that ecosystem meets industry, investors and government in one room. We are committed to building the next generation of skilled professionals who will power India’s journey towards Viksit Bharat 2047. We will continue to work with industry, with government and with partner institutions to advance our mission of creating the workforce, the entrepreneurs and the value creators of the future. Mumbai was always the right room for this conversation.”

Held at The Taj Lands End, Bandra, MIT INDIA’s IFS 2026, the day-long summit drew CHROs, CXOs, startup founders, investors, academic and technical leaders and student innovators for a structured event spanning panel discussions, round table, hackathon, investor arena, strategic partnership signings and the Mumbai HR Leadership Awards. The inaugural session was graced by Chief Guest Shri Mangal Prabhat Lodha, Hon’ble Cabinet Minister for Skill Development, Employment, Entrepreneurship & Innovation, Government of Maharashtra, with Padma Shri Manoj Joshi, veteran actor, and Shri Yogesh Suresh Patil, Director, Maharashtra State Board of Skill, Vocational Education and Training, as special guests.

The timing is pointed. SHRM’s India Skill Intelligence Report 2026, released in Mumbai earlier this year, found that 45% of organisations now cite AI skills as their single biggest workforce constraint, while the India Skills Report 2026 has flagged a decisive shift in employer preference from degrees towards skills-based hiring with stronger industry–academia linkages identified as central to closing the mismatch. IFS 2026 is built precisely around that linkage.

MIT India’s Mumbai debut extends a convergence model the institution has taken to cities across India. The summit is structured across five verticals; the MIT India Hackathon,Investor Arena, Panel Discussions, Round Tables and the Mumbai HR Leadership Awards. Each of them designed to produce tangible outcomes rather than stage time. 

The Investor Arena delivered stage-aligned matchmaking for ventures from ideation and seed through Series A/B and late-stage growth, supported by curated pitches, private post-pitch meetings and lounge networking. Two cornerstone panels “The Foundation for a Future-Ready Organisation” and “Building Culture in an AI-Driven Workplace” brought together voices from industry, academia and the founder community, while three private round tables enabled senior leaders to hold candid, off-the-record strategy conversations. The summit also featured a dedicated MoU ceremony, marking strategic partnerships between MIT India and leading organisations aimed at building employment pipelines, advancing joint research and establishing co-creation platforms.

The summit concluded with the Mumbai HR Leadership Awards, where a jury of 10–15 leading CHROs recognised excellence across nearly 30 HR and people-strategy categories, underscoring the summit’s premise that the future of work is, first and foremost, a talent question.
 

About MIT India
MIT India is one of India’s leading multi-disciplinary academic ecosystems, encompassing Engineering, Design (Avantika), Law, Management, Health Sciences, and Arts & Commerce. With four decades of institution-building, MIT India operates an incubation and entrepreneurship network that connects student innovation to industry and investor communities. The Industry–Institute Future Summit is MIT India’s flagship annual convergence platform, previously held in Pune, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad.