India, Pakistan to wage robowars

After two unsuccessful attempts over the past two years to facilitate Pakistani students to come to India and participate in Techfest, the technological festival of IIT-B, the organisers have managed to get the go ahead this year through the HRD and consul of Pakistan. Students from Pakistan’s technical institutes will be participating in zonal rounds in their country and the finalists will be coming to India in December.

Speaking about the participation of engineering students from across the border, Karan Mehta, media manager, Techfest 2016, said that the organisers had approached the Indian embassy and Consul General of Pakistan to India to ensure that the Pakistani techies could participate in this year’s edition of Asia’s largest technological fest. “Techfest has seen many international teams participate in various events but there have never been any teams from Pakistan. As part of the Ummeed-e-Milap initiative started a few years back by Techfest to bring students from India and Pakistan closer, the former organising teams of Techfest tried to bring Robowars teams for the finale. However, over the past two years, owing to visa problems, the teams that qualified in the zonal rounds in Pakistan were unable to come. Hence, it was decided to seek the help of top authorities,” said Mr Mehta. He added that the organisers had received wholehearted support from the Indian and Pakistani officials.

Mohammad Taha, a student of NED University of Engineering and Technology, Karachi, who is the chief coordinator of Techfest in Pakistan, said that engineering students were keen to showcase their skills against their Indian counterparts. “Here in Pakistan events such as Robowars is of great interest for tech students. Though relations between our nations are sometimes hostile, passion and love for science drives us to leave it aside and compete in such competitions to ensure that at least we equal our Indian brothers if not surpass them,” said Mr Taha.

Throwing light on the arrangements made for the Pakistani teams, Saumil Agarwal, manager, Robowars, Techfest said, “Accommodation will be provided in our own institute and they will be given normal Indian food.”