Hello ,

IndiaFOSS 2026 is almost here, and we’re bringing you an edition packed with resources to help you prep. Before we jump into our curated conference guides and must-see campus community talks, we’re taking a hard look at the state of student tech. From the ₹134 crore proprietary software bill at premier institutes to the reality of AI tools at hackathons, here are the reads, resources, and opportunities shaping the FOSS ecosystem this month. Let’s get into it.

Reads

• The Cost of Proprietary Software in Higher Education: Did you know premier Indian institutes spent over ₹134 crore on proprietary software? FOSS United’s recent RTI findings, covered by The Hindu, highlight why transitioning to open-source tools is essential for helping students learn by building from first principles, rather than just becoming operators of expensive, rented software. Check out Licence to Learn for the complete report.

• Navigating Hackathons in the Age of AI: Are AI tools a cheat code, the new standard, or just another way to make us dumb? Following the conclusion of OSDHack'26, the OSDC team reflected on what it means to host and participate in a hackathon today. Read their takeaways on how the rise of LLMs is impacting the ecosystem.

• Lessons from an AI-Led Ethical Hack: A postmortem detailing how an AI-agent-led ethical hack breached Adalat AI’s infrastructure, and how their client-side document encryption successfully protected sensitive data anyway.

• Hacktoberfest 2026: Host a one-day fest to give your community the tools and knowledge to experiment and build with open source AI.

Opportunities

• Fellowships for Impact-Driven Tech: A handpicked list of paid fellowships, compiled by folks at Hard Problems, for designers and technologists moving into social impact work. If you are looking to test the waters of mission-driven tech without taking a massive career risk, start here.

Projects

• 4th Cross Labs: Zerodha’s engineering team recently launched this collective space to showcase their open-source work.

• A General Mishmash of Learning Resources: Open-source education at its finest! Aman Bhargava has openly published the complete slides, notes, and syllabus materials for courses he teaches at universities like DA-IICT and Chitkara. Whether you want to learn modern web development, dive into data design, or pick up mapping with OpenStreetMap and QGIS, this CC-licensed repository is incredibly valuable.

Resources

For this edition of the newsletter, we are curating resources that are going to help you navigate IndiaFOSS 2026 as a first-timer or make the most of the event as a returning student attendee. If you can’t make it to the event in person, keep an eye on our YouTube channel for the livestream!

• Navigating your first conference: Going to your first tech conference or meetup? Check out our official guide for newcomers. It covers everything from event etiquette and what to bring, to practical advice on how to confidently network with other developers and open-source contributors.

• Unofficial IndiaFOSS Companion App by James: The conference in your pocket — schedule, personal ranking, itinerary and indoor navigation, all offline, no account.

• Talks related to open source and education

  • From Institution to Community: Building a Culture of Open Source: This talk will highlight the journey of NITK Surathkal’s COSH, outlining how to build a high-impact, hierarchy-free community that produces real maintainers and builders.
  • Textbooks that run: interactive, zero-install CS education in the browser: One of the biggest barriers to learning a new language is the initial setup. This IndiaFOSS talk proposal showcases how developers built a fully interactive, zero-install course book for an NPTEL MOOC.
  • How to Build Long-Lasting Tech Communities That Thrive — A Playbook: Most student tech clubs fail the same way: they start with a burst of enthusiasm and quickly plateau. This IndiaFOSS 2026 talk will break down a proven "seven-layer" model for building sustainable developer communities.
  • Navigating the FOSS Contribution Journey: What does it really take to grow in the FOSS ecosystem? This IndiaFOSS talk proposal breaks down the roadmap from your first contribution to becoming a project maintainer.

• Booths at IndiaFOSS: A few student communities showcasing their work at IndiaFOSS this year include - amFOSS, COSH NITK, FOSS MEC and Homebrew at HSP. Make sure to go say Hi to them!

Contributors

Shoutout to Ganesh, Ruchika, James and the team at Open Source Developers’ Community for their contributions to this newsletter!

If you’d like to feature your community’s work or your own in the next edition, please share it in the Newsletter topic on the FOSS Clubs Telegram before the 15th of next month.