Jagannath Rath Yatra 2025: IIT, IIM Students to Intern, Learn Public Governance

In a unique initiative, students from India’s premier policy institutions have been invited to Puri, Odisha, for the Jagannath Rath Yatra 2025—not as pilgrims, but as interns.

Students from IITs, IIMs, and top policy schools have already applied to work on one of the country’s largest and most complex spiritual events. The Puri District Administration is launching a first-of-its-kind Public Systems and Infrastructure Internship, offering hands-on experience in public management at an unprecedented scale.

The selected students will spend 10 to 15 days in Puri, working on projects related to sanitation infrastructure, crowd behaviour analysis, emergency response systems, seva stall operations, and digital citizen engagement.

Describing the initiative as an exercise in “scale, devotion, and coordination,” Puri Collector Siddharth Shankar Swain said it was high time that India’s brightest minds witnessed what nation-building truly looks like.

The internship aims to give students a close look at how public systems operate under high-pressure conditions and how multiple agencies coordinate to manage millions of people. These students won’t just observe—they will actively contribute to improving key aspects of the Yatra, gaining firsthand insight into governance, grassroots challenges, and real-time decision-making.

Powered by Chaaipani, a branding and storytelling agency managing brand activations for this year’s Rath Yatra, the internship offers a rare opportunity where logistics, tradition, and civic learning converge.