Jammu, India – NTT DATA has announced a strategic collaboration to establish an AI center of excellence (AI-CoE) at IIT Jammu with the goal of helping make communities safer, expanding local access to AI capabilities, developing the region’s talent and creating new pathways for local economic opportunity.
Jammu and Kashmir’s (J&K) mountainous terrain and river systems present complex challenges related to floods, landslides, infrastructure planning and emergency response. Strengthening climate and disaster resilience will therefore be an important focus, with potential applications including flood monitoring and early-warning for the Tawi and Chenab river basins, as well as sensor-based approaches to landslide and flood risk.
NTT DATA and IIT Jammu will explore how AI, geospatial data, digital twins, IoT and edge technologies could help better understand existing risks, strengthen preparedness and response. They will also explore locally relevant AI, including research into Indian languages such as Dogri, to help make digital services more accessible.
NTT DATA will leverage its global network of Innovation Centers to connect IIT Jammu’s research capabilities with industry needs and NTT DATA’s global advanced technology capabilities. The collaboration will explore relevant use cases in the wider J&K region, with the potential for successful approaches to be adapted more broadly across India.
Four areas of innovation
The planned AI-CoE will organize its work around four areas:
- Secure and responsible AI innovation: Develop secure, responsible and locally relevant AI, including small and large language models, agentic AI and AI governance. This will include AI capabilities in Indian languages such as Dogri, with potential applications in digital public services.
- Digital twins: Create virtual models of physical environments and infrastructure to support better planning, monitoring and decision-making, with applications spanning smart campuses, infrastructure management, environmental monitoring and climate and disaster resilience.
- Physical AI: Combine AI with robotics, computer vision, IoT and edge computing for applications including infrastructure monitoring, autonomous systems, situational awareness and public safety.
- Research commercialization and startup lab: Help translate research into intellectual property, product development and startup formation, supporting deep-tech entrepreneurship and economic opportunity in J&K.
Developing skills alongside technology
A talent development program will connect the four areas of innovation, giving students, researchers and faculty opportunities to work directly on real world challenges. Planned activities include industry projects, faculty engagement, fellowships, hackathons and practical exposure to AI, high-performance computing and edge computing.
“AI’s greatest impact happens when it helps solve real problems for people and communities. Together with IIT Jammu, we will give researchers and students a pathway to turn promising ideas into practical solutions and commercial applications. By combining local insight with NTT DATA’s global technology capabilities, we can develop solutions that are relevant to Jammu and Kashmir and have the potential to scale more broadly,” said Avinash Joshi, Executive Managing Director, India, NTT DATA.
“By bringing together IIT Jammu’s research and talent with NTT DATA’s technology and industry expertise, we want to create an environment where ideas can move from research to real-world application. The collaboration will give our students, researchers and faculty opportunities to address challenges that matter to Jammu and Kashmir while developing innovations that can have relevance across India,” said Professor Manoj Gaur, Director, IIT Jammu.
