18 November 2026 · Technopark, Kerala
We already have more than we realise.It’s time to build together.
What can we actually build together with the capabilities and opportunities we already have?
Convened by The Purple Movement. Park Centre, Technopark Phase 1, Thiruvananthapuram.
The real gap
We don’t lack capabilities. We lack connections.
India does not lack talent, institutions, industry, technology, government programmes, research capacity or communities. What we often lack is the ability to connect these capabilities so that resources, expertise, knowledge, opportunities and people can move across institutional boundaries.
Each part of the ecosystem already holds something the others need. Most of it stays where it is, because there is no shared place to see it, and no habit of asking for it.
- Government
- Programmes, policy levers, coordination, recognition and the ability to scale what works.
- Industry
- Real problems, practitioners, mentorship, technology and opportunities.
- Academia
- Students, faculty, research capacity, laboratories and infrastructure.
- Startups
- Speed, new technology and the appetite to test things.
- Communities and NGOs
- Reach into places and people that formal institutions cannot easily access.
- Young people
- Curiosity, energy, ideas and ambition.
Removing the gap
From Bridging the Gap to Removing the Gap.
AI and other emerging technologies are changing the nature of knowledge, work, entrepreneurship and organisations faster than conventional systems can adapt. Young people need more than updated curricula. They need opportunities to learn, experiment, collaborate, build, solve real problems and demonstrate what they can do.
So instead of repeatedly asking how do we bridge the industry and academia disconnect?, Rise Together asks a different question:
Why should they operate as disconnected worlds in the first place?
- Imagine students learning from professors, collaborating with industry mentors, solving real problems, working with communities and demonstrating their capabilities through real work.
- Imagine companies opening challenges, technologies, mentorship and opportunities earlier in the learning journey.
- Imagine universities sharing research and infrastructure.
- Imagine government institutions making collaboration easier through policy, coordination, recognition and access.
That is the ecosystem Rise Together wants to help build.
Three conversations, one direction
From what is changing, to what we have, to what we will build.
On 18 November, the day moves through three connected questions. Each one depends on the answer to the last.
- 01
Evolve & Adapt
What is changing?
AI and other emerging technologies are changing the nature of knowledge, work, entrepreneurship and organisations faster than conventional systems can adapt. Young people need more than updated curricula: they need opportunities to learn, experiment, collaborate, build and demonstrate what they can do.
- 02
Decentralise & Collaborate
What do we already have?
Industry has problems, expertise and opportunities. Academia has students, faculty, research and infrastructure. Government can enable, connect, coordinate and scale. Communities reach places formal systems cannot. The task is to make these visible to each other.
- 03
Collective Action
What will we build together?
Shared challenges meet existing capabilities and become practical collaborative pilots with participating institutions. Each pilot has a defined objective, contributing partners, a coordinating team and measurable milestones, reviewed at 30, 90 and 180 days.
Kerala as a living laboratory
Test what works here. Adapt it across India.
Rise Together begins in Kerala with ambitions that extend beyond the state. The objective is to explore practical collaboration models that can be tested locally, evaluated, improved and potentially adapted elsewhere, connecting existing national and state-level initiatives with industry, academia and community capabilities.
These are proposed areas for exploration, not confirmed or funded projects.
- 01
Industry challenges integrated into learning
Real problems from companies and public bodies become project work for students, with mentors from the organisation that owns the problem.
- 02
Faculty and industry immersion
Faculty spend structured time inside industry teams; practitioners spend structured time in classrooms and labs.
- 03
Recognition of demonstrated skills
Proof of work, portfolios and peer-validated contributions recognised alongside credentials by universities and employers.
- 04
AI-enabled innovation for public and community challenges
Student and startup teams work with government departments and communities on problems that matter locally.
- 05
Shared access to laboratories, infrastructure and expertise
Universities, research institutions and companies open facilities and expertise across institutional boundaries.
- 06
Cross-institutional learning and research
Learners and researchers move between institutions for courses, projects and research without administrative friction.
Thirteen years in the making
Rise Together did not start this year.
It builds on a community that met every month at Technopark from June 2013 to June 2025, and on the people, institutions and trust that grew around it.
- 20135 June 2013
FAYA:80 begins
A free monthly technology session starts at Technopark, Thiruvananthapuram, on the first Wednesday of every month. It begins under the name Coffee@DBG and becomes FAYA:80, read “FAYA port 80”.
Photo: FAYA:80 archive - 20175 July 2017
Disrupt Kerala
The 50th edition becomes a day-long gathering at Travancore Hall, Park Centre, Technopark, in association with NASSCOM, with global speakers and workshops. Kochi and Kozhikode chapters of FAYA:80 are launched the same day.
Video: Disrupt Kerala 2017 Highlights · FAYA on YouTube - 202322 February 2023
Evolve India
The 100th edition, “Preparing for the Unpredictable (AI)”, at Travancore Hall, Park Centre. The conversation turns to how people, institutions and organisations need to evolve. HR Evolve, the first domain-focused chapter, starts here.
Video: Evolve India 2023: Preparing for the Unpredictable (AI) · FAYA on YouTube - 20245 June 2024
Transcend India
The 11th anniversary and 116th edition: an AI conclave at Travancore Hall in collaboration with Google for Developers, with Kerala Startup Mission and GTech, on positioning India to ride the AI wave.
Video: Transcend India 2024: Gearing up for the Inevitable · FAYA on YouTube - 202528 June 2025
Beyond FAYA:80
The final edition at Park Centre closes twelve years of sessions held every single month since June 2013. Rather than ending, the community deliberately decentralises into domain chapters, and The Purple Movement is set in motion on the same stage.
Video: Beyond FAYA:80: Connecting the Dots, the final edition · FAYA on YouTube - 202618 November 2026
Rise Together
Thirteen years of relationships, knowledge and capabilities turn into something new: collaborative pilots. Government, industry, academia, startups, communities and young people meet at Park Centre, Technopark, not as speakers and audience but as potential collaborators.
Bring what you have
The invitation
Individually, each contribution may appear small. Connected together, they can become the ecosystem we need.
- A company may bring a challenge.
- A professor may bring expertise.
- A university may open a laboratory.
- A government department may identify a problem or remove a barrier.
- A startup may bring technology.
- A community may bring reach.
- A student may bring an idea nobody else has considered.
The journey, documented
In the public record
Coverage of the thirteen-year journey. Independent reporting and partner content are labelled as such.
- Kerala Technology1 July 2025A dusk and dawn at FAYA:80
On the final FAYA:80 session, the move to decentralised chapters and the coming Purple Movement.
Independent column - TechCircle9 January 2026FAYA India’s Deepu Nath on why AI needs a human reset
Why the real disruption is to mindset and education, and the case for peer-led communities and proof of work.
Interview - ET Telecom (PTI)16 April 2024Kerala IT firms revamp hiring strategies for AI era
Launchpad Kerala 2024 and problem-solving-first hiring, with GTech’s Academia and Technology Focus Group.
Wire report - Republic World18 July 2025Twelve years of consistent learning: inside the legacy of FAYA:80
A narrative of FAYA:80 from June 2013 to June 2025 and the Purple Movement that follows it.
Initiative feature
What happens after November 18?
The gathering is the start, not the output.
Participating institutions are invited to identify initial pilots, nominate coordinating representatives and review progress together at 30, 90 and 180 days.
- 30days
Form
Pilot teams are confirmed with a named coordinator, partners and a first milestone. Contributions submitted through this site are matched to pilots or kept in the commons.
- 90days
Prove
First milestones are reviewed. What is working is documented openly; what is not is adjusted or stopped honestly.
- 180days
Scale or stop
Each pilot is reviewed for evidence, cost and the institutions willing to carry it forward. Verified results are published on the Outcomes page.
The success of Rise Together will not be measured by the number of people attending.It will be measured by what starts happening afterward.
Share Rise Together with someone who should be in the room.
Questions? Call Deepu S Nath, Chief Volunteer, The Purple Movement, on +91 99957 10101, or read the concept note.