Dec-20,2025 – Sona College of Technology in Salem hosted its flagship event of the year, ‘Think Salem 2025‘, to attract startups from the ‘Steel City’. Besides, many startups and students from Coimbatore, Erode, Tiruppur, and other Tier-2 cities of Tamil Nadu attended the event, reinstating the point that seeking jobs is a thing of the past.
Several distinguished guests, including Dr. TS Rao, former Senior Adviser (Additional Secretary), Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Ministry of Science & Technology, Govt. of India; Ramanan Ramanathan, former Mission Director, Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) & Additional Secretary, NITI Aayog; Nixon Joseph, CSR Consultant, Former President & COO, SBI Foundation; Muthu Singaram, CEO, Healthcare Technology Innovations, HTIC, IIT Madras; Natarajan Ranganathan, MD & CFO, Helion Ventures Pvt. Ltd; Natarajan Ranganathan, MD & CFO, Helion Ventures Pvt. Ltd; Raveen Sastry, entrepreneur & angel investor; Dr.Prabusankar, CEO, Shanmuga Hospital; Sivakumar Palanisamy, VP & Chief of Staff, StartupTN and Anand Shankar, Head, Family office of Sattva Group, adorned the dias with their powerful talk, sharing practical insights and strategies for creating startups that address real-world challenges.
The panel of speakers actively engaged in keynote presentations, fireside chats moderated by industry experts, and handed over awards and recognition to startups, studentpreneurs, innovators, and students who won various hackathons, pitch sessions, and other tech contests. A panel led by Shameer, Founder, By The Startups, and Senthilkumar Rajappan, Founder, Halycyon Ventures, adjudicated startups in various growth stages to pitch their products, helping them to incubate at the Sona Incubation Centre as incubatees. Grants and equity funds were distributed in the form of an agreement to several participants of a startup cohort created by the Sona Incubation Centre.
The crowd came alive when Bhavana and Sunil Kumar, a team of BTech III-year students from Sona College of Technology, appeared on the stage proudly displaying the Google Gemini AI cash prize of INR 25 lakh that they secured out of 29,349 teams at a national tech event, acknowledging their pioneering AI-driven innovation.
Equally inspiring and impressive was the warm welcome received by a group of students aged 9 to 11 from Sona Valliappa Public School. Their award-winning submission at the AI Innovation Roadshow: Innovista 2025, which took place simultaneously at the Sona campus, showcased how early engagement with AI is churning out talented problem-solvers who are preparing for the future of the technological landscape in the region.
Chocko Valliappa, Vice Chairman of The Sona Group & CEO of Vee Technologies, spoke at length about the future of global innovation and entrepreneurship. Prof.Dr. S.R.R. Senthilkumar, Principal of Sona College of Technology, welcomed the gathering. Sathya Murthy, Head, Sona Incubations, delivered the event’s vote of thanks, whose team meticulously planned and coordinated the day-long event.
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