AGNI Launches Industry Benchmarking Drive

02 Jun 2026 CW Team

The Association of Global NICMARians (AGNI), the alumni body of NICMAR, hosted ASPIRE 2026 in Mumbai under the theme ‘Innovation to Transformation’. The symposium brought together professionals from construction, infrastructure, real estate and project management to discuss technology, AI, sustainability and data-led decision-making.

At the event, AGNI announced its vision to emerge as an industry think tank and launched initiatives including an Industry Benchmarking Programme. It also proposed a digital ecosystem with tools for innovation impact assessment, salary benchmarking, company benchmarking, material costing and vendor portfolios.

Dr P R Swarup, Director General, CIDC, highlighted the need to build a future-ready workforce, strengthen technical capabilities and encourage collaboration across India’s construction sector. AGNI and CIDC also agreed to collaborate on industry development, skill enhancement, knowledge sharing and innovation adoption.

Hemant Jagtap, Officer on Special Duty, MSRDC, delivered a session on Mumbai’s infrastructure transformation, offering insights into major projects reshaping the city’s urban landscape and improving regional connectivity.

AGNI also launched the first edition of the AGNI Excellence Awards to recognise innovations with measurable impact across the construction ecosystem. The awards received over 34 nominations across five categories, with 12 shortlisted startups presenting their solutions before the jury and audience.

The awards aim to support startups and innovators by connecting them with end-users and decision-makers. AGNI said ASPIRE 2026 marks the beginning of its larger mission to drive transformation through thought leadership, benchmarking, innovation and collaboration across the built environment sector.

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