Roorkee, Mar 25 (IANS): Cleaning the Ganga and training unemployed youth were some of the initiatives taken up at Cognizance, the annual three-day technical festival of IIT Roorkee.

Growth Development Programme, Ganga rejuvenation project and eliminating darkness were the key themes of Cognizance 2018.

"We also collaborated with Pritham Education Foundation to help a number of unemployed youths to develop skills by offering three-month training to them," M.K. Barua, Associate DOSW (Students Activities) Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee, told IANS on Sunday.

Besides these, many other initiatives were adopted with 75 companies sponsoring the festival that began here on Friday.

In collaboration with Uttarakhand Renewable Energy Development Agency, under its social initiative programme "Let's Eliminate Darkness", the students also distributed LED bulbs in remote regions of Kundi and Lakhnauta in Uttarakhand.

"We distributed 46 LED bulbs in Kundi district and 72 in Lakhnauta village with the aim to eliminate darkness from these areas," Barua said.

"I think we have to use advancements in technology and the capabilities of international majors to deploy solutions which can brighten the lives of our countrymen."

He said Cognizance is an initiative to aware people from across the country to consider it as a sacred duty, give support and contribute their time and efforts toward this mission.

IIT Roorkee Director Ajit Kumar Chaturvedi said Cognizance was a platform aimed at enhancing entrepreneurship skill among students.

"Becoming a successful entrepreneur requires concentration, innovation and communication... all these essential skills students learn at the tech fest," he said.