To commemorate National Mathematics Day, the Lodha Mathematical Sciences Institute (LMSI) transformed its Wadala campus into an international gathering place for the world of mathematics. Over a span of three days, more than 80 mathematicians from India and other countries came together in order to discuss how mathematics influences the contemporary world in terms of technology, artificial intelligence, education, and society.
The conference provided a common meeting platform for mathematicians from various nations, most of whom had international recognition, reflecting the ambition of LMSI to place India among the mathematics map of the world. Launched in August 2025, LMSI is India’s only privately funded mathematics research institute and is dedicated almost entirely to research, unlike traditional academic institutions that balance teaching and coursework.
“The purpose of establishing such an institution is to address the gap that has been existing in the research landscape of India,” said Dr. V. Kumar Murty, the director of LMSI at the occasion. “Of course, India is not deficient when it comes to mathematicians. However, when it comes to carrying out research, one requires an atmosphere that is devoid of any distractions,” Dr. Murty said, adding that LMSI is patterned after the best institutions all around the world such as the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton and the Max Planck Institute in Germany.
“In today’s world, almost every major technological innovation is rooted in mathematics,” Dr Murty said. Strengthening mathematics, he added, automatically strengthens how technology integrates with society. He also linked this thinking to India’s long-term development goals, arguing that mathematics and AI are among the few tools capable of scaling solutions for a country of over a billion people.
In just four months, LMSI has already hosted its first major research programme focused on arithmetic statistics, a specialised field with relatively few researchers in India. According to Dr Murty, bringing 80 mathematicians from across the world together helped Indian researchers understand where global research currently stands and what problems remain unsolved. “The objective is not just to do good mathematics, but to understand what mathematics can do,” he said.
One of the leaders of the program, Fields medalist Dr Manjul Bhargava, spoke of how LMSI is engaged with not only today’s researchers but also younger mathematicians. Although LMSI is an organisation engaged in advanced research, Dr. Bhargava emphasised that mathematical curiosity should develop earlier on.
“People think that math education has to do with remembering formulas or identities,” he said, “but it’s really elsewhere.” Math, he said, “teaches students how to think logically, how to analyse data, how to make decisions,” which are just as important in everyday life as in scientific settings. With AI becoming central to modern technology, he added, strong mathematical foundations will determine whether India leads or follows in this space.
More about LSMI Math Circles
As part of this vision, LMSI plans to launch a national network of “math circles” for students from Classes 6 to 12. Modelled after successful groups from Eastern Europe, and operating in Russia and the US, these groups will provide a means for interested students to investigate concepts outside the mathematics textbook, under the direction of a qualified teacher.
This will start in big cities like Mumbai and Delhi, and move to Tier 1, Tier 2 cities, and finally to rural India. Dr. Bhargava highlighted that this will be available for people from various economic classes, boards, and languages, and with minimal charges for students coming from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. Selection will focus only on a student’s interest or talent in mathematics, identified either through teachers or online assessments.
Storytelling will play a key role in how mathematics is taught in these circles. Dr Bhargava noted that learning how mathematical ideas were discovered and why makes the subject more relatable and human, rather than abstract and intimidating. Early pilots, he said, show that students find this approach more engaging and enjoyable.
For LMSI, the broader goal is to build an ecosystem in which school-level curiosity feeds into higher research, and advanced research inspires younger learners. As Dr Murty put it, the institute’s role is not to “grow the plant” itself, but to remove obstacles so talent can flourish naturally.
With growing international interest and increasing collaboration, LMSI’s National Mathematics Day event offered a glimpse of how India could reclaim a leadership role in a field deeply rooted in its history and central to its future.
