IIT Guwahati to establish Manekshaw Centres for defence research at IIITs, NITs, IITs

The Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati (IIT Guwahati) will establish Manekshaw Centres for Defence and Security Research throughout the country. The centres will serve as a collaborative point between the armed forces, security agencies and academic and research institutions.

Currently, the Manekshaw centres include IIT Guwahati, IIT Madras, IIT Kanpur, IIT Jodhpur, IIT Dharwad, IIT Delhi, IIT Bombay, IIT Kharagpur, IIT BHU-Varanasi, and IIT ISM-Dhanbad, along with the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore, and Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) Delhi.

The initiative aims to unite all IITs, IIITs, and National Institutes of Technology (NIT) for the goal of defence technology and national security research. IIT Guwahati’s Manekshaw Centre of Excellence for National Security Studies and Research (MCoENSSR) aims to spread the objective of “strategic vision, operational excellence, and technological expertise”.

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IIT Guwahati Centres: ‘Atmanirbhar’ solutions

The Manekshaw research centres aim to promote the government’s Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative with “win India’s wars with Indian solutions”. The centres at different institutions will collaborate with startups, industry partners and foreign institutes to deliver the requirements of the Indian Armed Forces.

According to IIT Guwahati, the Centres for Defence and Security Research aspire to hold dialogue series, workshops, seminars, and ‘ideathons’. The centres will also organise national conferences on new security challenges and asymmetric hybrid non-contact warfare. They hope to contribute towards the development of futuristic technologies.

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IIT Guwahati plans to establish its research hubs in partnership with the ministry of education. A “high-level” delegation briefed the union minister of education, Dharmendra Pradhan, about the establishment of the nodal centres in Indian institutes. The delegation consisted of Devendra Jalihal, Director, IIT Guwahati, Manindra Agrawal, Director, IIT Kanpur, and Subrata Saha, executive chairman and COO of the Manekshaw Centre of Excellence.

“Manekshaw Centre will act as an interface between Indian academia and defence forces. The centre will periodically carry out dialogues with defence agencies and will participate actively to define and design systems for Indian security needs,” commented Jalihal.