Bhubaneswar 10 th October, 2026 [ADN]
The School of Human Settlements (SHS), XIM University, Bhubaneswar collaborated with their functional committee HabituX, hosted their annual student fest UNNOVATIONS’ 26 on 9th – 10th October, 2026. With urbanization and its environmental impacts growing rapidly but awareness of urban issues remaining low among youth, the fest themed as a “Festival of Urban Ideas and Innovations” aimed to spark curiosity and ideation and invited students from across India to ideate and compete on urban sustainability challenges through academic and cultural activities.
The fest commenced with an address by Dr Kajri Misra, Dean, School of Human Settlements, along with Dr Tiyali Bose, Faculty Coordinator, HabituX, and the student HabituX Team. The Dean welcomed the participants and spoke about the genesis of SHS and XIM University’s vision of nurturing expertise for a sustainable urban future through its unique MBA in Urban Management and Governance programme. She highlighted that cities are largely responsible for many of today’s environmental issues, so global sustainability depends largely on changing current patterns of urban development. She explained that students from all disciplines can help resolve issues of urban resilience and sustainability, and stressed the need to develop urban areas for health, safety, community interaction and relationships.
Over 200 students from across the country took part in competitions such as Dream City, The Mayor’s Discourse, Quizzite, developing ideas for greener, livable, equitable and sustainable habitats, in online and offline mode. The theme for Dream City was “From Flood to Flow: Reimagining Urban Water Management”, which sought to shift the paradigm from treating urban water as a disaster to using it as a resource. The Mayor’s Discourse focused on “Digitization of Urban Municipal Governance and Urban Municipal Service Delivery”. Creative contests like Shutterbug (urban photography), Face It On (face painting) and Rhythm (performances) encouraged expression and engagement with urban themes. This year’s Shutterbug captured the diversity of people and lives in a city and its “Migration & the City” component revealed stories of people who moved to the city for work, education or survival.
First prize winners included Sai Shreerupa Priyadarshini and Somanath Panigrahi from XIM University, Bhubaneswar (Dream City), Jitangshu Nath from the National Institute of Science Education and Research (NISER) (The Mayor’s Discourse), Ankita Singh from XIM University, Bhubaneswar (Shutterbug), Arpita Mohapatra and Arpita Priyadarshini from Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan (Quizzite), Priyanshi Majumdar and Sambit Pattnaik from Trident Academy of Creative Technology (Face It On), and Team Divine from Utkal University (Rhythm).
Dr Kajri Misra delivered the concluding remarks, and the fest closed with a vote of thanks by Ms. Swar Sadhna Ranjan, Coordinator, HabituX. The collective participation of SHS students, faculty, and staff contributed to the seamless coordination and overall success of the fest.
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