High-level meeting held at BHU for Kashi Tamil Sangamam 5.0 preparations

A high-level meeting was held at Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Varanasi, on 3 November, 2026, to review the preliminary preparations for Kashi Tamil Sangamam 5.0 (KTS 5.0) and coordination between various agencies. The meeting was chaired by Secretary of the Higher Education Department, Smt. Deepti Gaur Mukherjee.

According to a PIB report, the meeting was attended by BHU Vice-Chancellor Prof. Ajit Kumar Chaturvedi, Additional Chief Secretary (Higher Education) to the Government of Uttar Pradesh Shri Amit Kumar Ghosh, senior officials from the Union Ministry of Education, representatives from the State Government, district administration, BHU, and Indian Railways, as well as other key stakeholders.

During the meeting, detailed discussions were held regarding administrative coordination at various departments and district levels, special rail transport arrangements being made by IRCTC, and other logistics, infrastructural facilities, exhibitions, tours, and cultural programmes. Senior ministry officials visited various sites, including Namo Ghat, to inspect operational preparations.

The fifth edition of Kashi Tamil Sangamam will be held from 28 November to 12 December, 2026, on the theme ‘Thirukkural Payilvom-Thirukkural Abiyasa Keren’. The primary objective of this programme is to disseminate the eternal ethical and character-building knowledge of the classical Tamil text ‘Thirukkural’ to the youth and students across the country.

As part of this programme, approximately 1,400 participants will arrive from Tamil Nadu, who will be divided into seven groups of 200 persons each. This delegation will undertake an eight-day journey, comprising a four-day tour and four days of visits along with well-structured programmes. During this trip, Varanasi, Prayagraj, and Ayodhya will be visited, where cultural, educational, subject-specific, and spiritual activities will be organised. Additionally, 50 teachers from Tamil Nadu will visit Uttar Pradesh and teach Thirukkural in schools and colleges during KTS 5.0.

Union Minister of Education Shri Prahalad Joshi inaugurated the web portal and the registration process for delegates for KTS 5.0 on 22 October, 2026. To enhance the widespread understanding of Thirukkural among students, a nationwide student engagement programme will be undertaken by 1,000 Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) across the country. Under this initiative, research, studies, and campus-based activities will be conducted for the dissemination of the values of Thirukkural, the details of which are available at www.kts.cict.in.

In this entire process, the Central Institute of Classical Tamil (CICT), Chennai, is leading the digital outreach, publications, and institutional engagement. Meanwhile, IIT Madras and Banaras Hindu University are serving as the nodal coordination institutions for Tamil Nadu and Kashi, respectively.