Assamese aerospace engineer Priyanka Rajkakati invited to Modi-Macron dinner on July 14

When French President Emmanuel Macron will host Prime Minister Narendra Modi for dinner at the iconic Louvre museum in Paris during the latter's two-day visit to the country, Assamese aerospace engineer Priyanka Das Rajkakati will be among the 250 invited guests. The invited guests for the dinner, to be held in Modi’s honour on July 14, France’s National Day also known as Bastille Day, will be treated to a special viewing of a number of iconic works. The Indian prime minister is the Guest of Honour on Bastille Day this year. 

During the dinner, Priyanka plans to wear an Assamese 'mekhela chador' and hopes to present an artwork of hers to PM Modi as a gift. Though born to Assamese parents, Priyanka has spent most of her growing up days in Delhi. Her father Manoj Kumar Das, who earlier held top positions in North Eastern Development Finance Corporation and North Eastern Regional Agricultural Marketing Corporation, hails from Dhemaji. Mother Ajanta Baruah Das is a doctor.

Priyanka, who currently lives in Paris, is an Alumni Ambassador of the France Alumni programme. She has earlier won several recognitions such as Forbes India 30 under 30, the Karman Fellowship and India Today’s Next 100 Innovators. Apart from her achievements in aerospace engineering, she is also an accomplished artist. One of her demonstrative art-tech projects, Bhedadipika, spent a year on board the International Space Station in 2022, as part of the Moon Gallery project. In 2019, she was selected for a global initiative that conducts leadership expeditions for women in science to Antarctica.

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An alumnus of St. Stephen's College (Delhi), Ecole Polytechnique (Paris) and ISAE-Supaéro (Toulouse), she defines her work as an intersection of art, science and society. In fact, she aspires to explore how traditional artistic and cultural practices from across the world could contribute towards sustainable space exploration.

Following her first entrepreneurial experience as co-founder of the Franco-German space startup, The Exploration Company, she is now experimenting with a novel venture, an art-tech studio, Atelier Arth.

Bringing her Assamese indigenous touch to her founding art-tech studio, Atelier Arth's logo has been inspired by the Assamese letter for the sound "a": অ, according to Priyanka Rajkakati.

It aims to develop interdisciplinary methodologies that would bridge the communication and trust gap between cutting-edge space technologies and society, especially in the context of rural or developing communities.

She also plans to run outreach campaigns in her home state Assam, to create awareness about how space technologies can be used to better everyday life. “I also want to inspire more youngsters, particularly women to pursue space science,” says Priyanka.

The pilot project for the studio, RiVeins, is a concept for a community-based flood resilience system that infuses existing flood early warning technologies with local cultural narratives.

She also has an upcoming voyage to Antarctica with the Homeward Bound women-in-STEMM initiative.