16 - 10 - 2026

IIT Hyderabad launches India’s first course on goodness

The Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad (IITH) has launched India’s first academic credit course dedicated to goodness, character, and personal responsibility.

The elective – ‘Goodness: Character, Responsibility and Human Flourishing’ – is open to all undergraduate students across various academic years and design disciplines without any prerequisites.

More than 140 students have already registered for the programme.

Designed to encourage critical thinking about what constitutes a meaningful life, the curriculum prompts students to evaluate success beyond standard metrics of income and professional title. Rather than imposing a single definition of virtue, the course invites participants to examine ethical responsibility toward society and practical applications in everyday life.

Spanning seven sessions, the coursework covers multiple dimensions of human flourishing—encompassing physical, mental, emotional, social, and spiritual aspects—alongside the Goodness Index framework, Character Infrastructure, the Character Dividend, Personal Social Responsibility, and connections to national development goals under Viksit Bharat.

The curriculum concept was originally proposed by the Institute of Goodness and subsequently adopted by IITH as an official credit course. It is taught by Ravi Sharma, founder of the Institute of Goodness and an alumnus of IIT Roorkee, whose previous work includes developing the Goodness Index framework.

Ravi Sharma stated that the initiative aims to make goodness measurable, teachable, and a core component of mainstream education, noting that true success is defined by the positive impact individuals make on society rather than personal achievements alone.

Complementing the elective, IITH has introduced a mandatory one-credit course titled Mental Well-being & Resilience for all first-year undergraduates, administered in conjunction with the institution’s Sunshine Counseling Cell. This compulsory module addresses stress management, time management, emotional intelligence, healthy interpersonal relationships, digital well-being, addiction management, and suicide prevention training, while connecting learners with peer support networks.

Neeraj Kumar, Faculty-in-Charge of the Sunshine Counseling Cell, noted that resilience and goodness mutually reinforce one another, providing students with practical coping mechanisms alongside a deeper sense of social purpose.

Established in 2008, IITH accommodates over 6,110 students—with postgraduate and doctoral candidates comprising about 60 per cent of the student body—supported by more than 355 full-time faculty members and 350 non-teaching staff.

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