Anand Mahindra shares Harvard Professor's take on Mahakumbh Mela 2025: From Robotics, Chai to NASA style control room

Mahindra Group Chairman Anand Mahindra shared a blog post by a Harvard Professor highlighting the amalgamation of traditions and modernity at the Mahakumbh Mela 2025.

In a post on the social media platform X, Anand Mahindra highlighted a part from blog titled “Hot Chai, Robotics at the Maha Kumbh Mela, World’s largest Gathering of Humanity," by Professor Tarun Khanna of the Harvard Business School.

"@TarunKhannaHBS

is at the Maha Kumbh

His daily observations provide a fascinating view into the happenings there….

This blog edition was particularly interesting and worth sharing with you all," Mahindra wrote.

Mahakumbh Mela 2025 blog

Check out a few insights from the blog shared by Anand Mahindra.

“Mahakumbh 2025 is underway in India, the largest gathering of humanity in a single location, collectively visited by 250 million people over a few weeks, probably peak daily attendance of 50 million in a pop-up megacity,” Khanna stated.

He shared a picture of para commandos, who are deployed to provide security at the Mahakumbh Mela 2025.

“The ‘city’ is itself a marvel, built on the banks of a regularly receding holy river, to be dismantled ecologically efficiently at the end. The picture shows India’s paracommandos, deployed for security at the holy gathering,” Khanna added.

He highlighted how the security at the gathering was supported by NASA-style infrastructure.

“They are backed by a space-age monitoring infrastructure – NASA style control room plus reconnaissance and surveillance drones plus distributed sensors - for problem resolution primarily and, of course, security if and as needed,” Khanna said.

He also appreciated the chai provided by Chaipoint at Mahakumbh Mela 2025 and how it may challenge Starbucks.

“Marriage of the traditional holy event and modern techniques. And the fun part is the soldiers holding hot cups of steaming chai, India’s daily drink of choice,” he added.

“Chaipoint is the entrepreneurial venture selected by the Government to deliver perhaps 20 odd million cups of tea at the Kumbh.The stores are also pop-up stores, the chai is made by state-of-the-art robots, best in class globally, delivered to consistency and high quality, at very low prices. Eat your heart out, Starbucks. Again, traditional chai married with modern technology,” Khanna stated.

Mahakumbh Mela 2025

The Mahakumbh Mela 2025 is being hosted in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, from January 13 to February 26. One of the biggest religious events in the world, it is held once every 12 years.