IIT Hyderabad, Indian Army Join Hands to Set Up Centre of Excellence 'VIGRAHA'

The Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad (IITH) joined hands with the Simulator Development Division (SDD) of the Indian Army to create a Centre of Excellence (CoE) VIGRAHA — Virtual, Intelligent, Ground-breaking Research in AR/VR & High-tech Applications for the Indian Army.

Beside enhancing defence-academia partnership, the program is designed to spur pioneering research and innovation in new technologies such as Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), Artificial Intelligence (AI), robotics, and unmanned systems. The CoE will facilitate the Army's operational readiness through domestic development of training and battlefield simulation equipment.

Objectives of the Partnership

The collaboration will be on joint academic programmes, R&D, incubation, and capacity-building programmes. It will also provide internship facilities to IITH students in SDD and exchange mutual access to technical and academic infrastructure. Training and certification courses in upcoming domains of technology are also planned, developing a talent pool of man-power for defence.

Strategic Benefits

The CoE will be propelling India's indigenous capability in defence technology, as part of the Atmanirbhar Bharat national vision. Leveraging the combined abilities of academia and the armed forces, it will be equipping the country with cutting-edge, indigenously developed simulators for combat readiness.

Key Leaders Driving the Partnership

MoU was signed in the presence of Prof. B.S. Murty, Director, IITH, and senior Army officials like Brigadier A.K. Chaturvedi, SDD Secunderabad. Academic inputs will be led by faculty leaders such as Prof. G. Narahari Sastry and Dr. Shiva Ji, and implementation from the Army side will be led by officers such as Col Hari Om Ahlawat and Lt Col Anupam Porwal.

The SDD was founded in 1991 as the Army's nodal organization for simulator development and grew as a Centre of Expertise in AR/VR, advancing to AI, robotics, and unmanned aerial vehicle  technologies. IITH collaboration is a quantum jump in mapping India's future in military innovation.