India gets its first privately funded institute for maths research

MUMBAI: India, said Fields medallist Manjul Bhargava, must fall in love with mathematics again. Not as a "drudgery of formulae" but as an act of "exploration".Bhargava, Canadian by nationality but of Indian origin, believes classrooms need an overhaul-"experimental, playful," he said, with teachers "trained" to spark curiosity.

Speaking to TOI on the sidelines of the launch of the Lodha Mathematical Sciences Institute (LMSI), he added: "I'm happy with the new textbooks and the changes brought in them.

But they will only show impact in a few years."On the scientific advisory council of LMSI, Bhargava will lead sessions on arithmetic statistics, its new developments, and future directions. State cabinet minister Mangal Prabhat Lodha called it a school "not for an individual, not for a business, but for the nation that always prioritised knowledge over all and for India that gave so much math to the world."Entirely devoted to post-doctoral research, LMSI is India's first privately funded mathematics institute, backed by Lodha Foundation with a Rs 20,000 crore endowment. "We realised that for any nation to become strong, we ought to have original thinking and promote innovation," said Abhishek Lodha, CEO and MD of Lodha Developers. The privately funded mathematics research institute in the country is completely free, he added.

Founding director V Kumar Murthy-who earlier led Toronto's Fields Institute-described math as the hidden scaffolding of modern life: the foundation for finance, engineering, and technology. Economist Nachiket Mor, also on the advisory panel, noted that models built in the West often collapse in India because they rarely account for "unique characteristics" like limited liquidity and higher viscosity of adjustment.

"This reality makes it all the more urgent for us to build deep capacity mathematics," he said.Murthy explained that LMSI would begin not with students but with teachers. Ten senior number theorists have been chosen to seed the effort. As president, Murthy said he plans to travel across the country, meeting mathematicians firsthand and mapping who is doing what. The aim is to build a network where the "brightest minds" are spotted early, handpicked, and nurtured. By Dec 2026, LMSI will host the first Indian Congress of Mathematicians, showcasing contributions of Indian-origin mathematicians worldwide.