Union Education Ministry on Tuesday said the second edition of the Kashi Tamil Sangamam will be held from December 17-30. The sangamam aims at rediscovering, reaffirming and celebrating the age-old links between Tamil Nadu and Kashi two of the country’s most important and ancient seats of learning. The first edition was a month-long event organised last year.

"In Phase-2 of KTS it is proposed that around 1400 people from Tamil Nadu and Puducherry will travel by train to Varanasi, Prayagraj and Ayodhya for an eight-day immersive tour, including the travel time,”an official said.

They will be divided into seven groups of around 200 each, comprising students, teachers, farmers, artisans, traders, businesspeople, religious, writers and professionals, he said. “Each group will be named after a sacred river (Ganga, Yamuna, Saraswati, Sindhu, Narmada, Godavari and Kaveri),”the official of the ministry said.

Like the first edition, this edition too is being organised by the education ministry in collaboration with other ministries such as culture, textiles, railways, tourism, food processing, information and broadcasting, and the Uttar Pradesh government.

On the second edition, the official said, “The delegates will see places of historical, tourist and religious interest and interact with people of Uttar Pradesh from their domains of work.”KTS 2.0 would have a crisper format with emphasis on awareness generation and outreach, people-to-people connect and cultural involvement, he said.

“The focus would be on increased engagement and interaction with local counterparts (weavers, artisans, artists, entrepreneurs, writers etc) to get insights into best practices, enhance learning and cross pollination of ideas,”the official said.

Stalls exhibiting art and culture, handlooms, handicrafts, cuisine, and other special products of Tamil Nadu and Kashi will be set up, the official said. “Cultural programmes blending the cultures of Tamil Nadu and Kashi will be organized at Namo Ghat in Varanasi,”he said.

Seminars, discussions, lectures, on various facets of knowledge like literature, ancient texts, philosophy, spirituality, music, dance, drama, yoga, ayurveda, handlooms, handicrafts as well as the modern innovations, trade exchanges, edutech and other gen next technology will be highlights of the event, the official said.

“Apart from experts and scholars, local practical practitioners from Tamil Nadu and Varanasi will also participate in these exchanges so that a body of practical knowledge and innovations can emerge from the mutual learning in different fields,”he said.

To capitalise upon learnings from the firts edition and given their reputation for research, IIT Madras will serve as the implementing agency in Tamil Nadu and the Banaras Hindu University in Uttar Pradesh. “IIT Madras has called for applications on the KTS portal launched today, from people of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry who wish to participate in the programme. The selection of delegates will be done by a selection committee constituted for the purpose,”the official said.