Mother and son are completing their IIT-M programs together

Aditya Kapadia and Jigisha Tailor. | Photo credit: Special arrangement

They may not be the first mother-son duo to graduate from the institution together, but they certainly have a story to tell.

Aditya Kapadia, 23, and Jigisha Tailor, 49, were among the 1,460 candidates who recently graduated from what is being touted as one of the world’s largest extracurricular programs offered by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras. While Mr. Aditya completed his undergraduate degree program in Data Science and Applications, his mother completed her Diploma in Data Science.

Ms. Jigisha taught electronics for 16 years at a college in Gujarat before taking a break in 2019 to focus on her sons’ studies. When she was at home, she wanted to improve herself so that she could work from home. Along with that came an opportunity after her elder son enrolled in IIT-Madras’ bachelor’s degree program in data science and applications in 2021. Based on her son, she enrolled in a direct entry diploma program in 2023.

“I used to advise students about this upcoming field (Data Science). It was only after I joined the course that I realized how many applications it could have in various fields,” noted Ms. Jigisha. Elaborating, she said that in enterprise data management, these skills can be used to generate, understand and analyze data to improve even small businesses. “Above all other factors was her passion for learning new things,” says Mr. Aditya. It was at his encouragement that she joined the program and they soon became a mutual support.

The BS degrees were created in 2020 to reach out to people who do not have access to college degrees, says Vignesh Muthuvijayan, Coordinator, BS Degree, IIT-Madras. The first batch was registered in 2021. The program is designed to provide online content and assign weekly assignments to students. It has three dates a year and exams are held in person at centers across the country. The first year basically has basic courses in mathematics, statistics and programming skills, says Professor Vignesh, adding that things get much more technical and difficult in the following years.

To encourage enrollment of students from all economic strata, IIT-Madras offered a 50% fee waiver for students with an annual family income between ₹1 lakh and ₹5 lakh, while for those with an income of less than ₹1 lakh, the fee waiver was 75%, he adds.

Soon after completing the course, Aditya joined a multinational agricultural company and wishes to stay in the industry as he finds the sector interesting. “A large amount of data has been generated in this sector, but it is still difficult to analyze and present it. It is challenging,” he adds.

Ms Tailor says she is considering returning to teaching, but any full-time employment will have to wait until her younger son completes his senior high school exams next year.

Published – 19 Jul 2026 0:34 IST