Key Takeaways from the 2025 MInT Mobility Conclave | Data, Digital Twins & AI for Urban Mobility
The 2025 MInT Mobility Conclave brought together policymakers, researchers, technologists, and urban planners, to examine in depth how data, digital twins, and AI can shape the future of India’s mobility ecosystem.
Dr. Kelitha Cherian opened the conclave, by introducing the central theme of Data & Digital Twins for Mobility, setting the tone for applied, solution-driven discussions.
Dr. Ramki Srinivasan highlighted, how the digital public infrastructure and AI are transforming mobility problem-solving, and anchored discussions around:
🔹 India-specific mobility solutions
🔹 The role of community-generated data
🔹 Moving from intelligence to real on-ground impact
🔹 The long-term goal of reducing private vehicle dependency
🚦A key milestone was the formal MoU signing between the Center of Excellence for AI – Artificial Intelligence for Sustainable Cities and IIT Kanpur, led by Professor Manu Santhanam, to strengthen collaboration across research, policy, and implementation.
🚦Another milestone on the same occasion was the signing of MoU with Namma Yatri, the direct driver app led by Mr. Shan M S.
🚦Mr. @Satheesh G from C-DAC, representing Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), shared the real-world applications of AI in:
🔹 Traffic regulation
🔹 Adaptive signal control
🔹 Public transport optimization
🔹 The operational gaps between automation and enforcement
🚦Dr. Nisheeth Srivastava shared insights on MobilityX proposals, AI-driven decision support, traffic demand forecasting, and the growing need to translate academic research into deployable real-world systems.
🚦 Discussions also covered:
🔹Why Indian cities are densifying, but not expanding spatially?
🔹How China’s current urban mobility trends indicate, what India may resemble in the next 15–20 years!
🔹Why civilian and industrial traffic sharing the same roads, creates unique congestion challenges in India?
🔹The importance of AI as a tool for systems planning, integration, and governance!
👏 A key message echoed throughout the conclave was:
Urban mobility cannot be “fixed” through isolated technologies. It requires systems thinking, platform-based coordination, resilient data pipelines, and multi-stakeholder collaboration.