Chennai, 15 Oct 2026: IITM Pravartak Technologies Founda tion, the technology innovation hub of the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, has signed a Memo randum of Understand ing with Medhastra Techsystems Private Limited to promote indigenous innovation in defence artificial intelligence. The MoU was signed at IIT Madras in the presence of Prof. V. Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, and Dr. M. J. Shankar Raman, CEO, IITM Pravartak. Air Vice Marshal R. Guruhari (Retd.), Chief Advisor – Defence, Medhastra, was also present.
The partnership is part of IITM Pravar tak's wider effort to build India's capability in strategic and defence technologies by connec ting cutting-edge academic research with deep-tech companies that can take it to the field. Under the MoU, IITM Pravartak and Medhastra will work together on various AI initiatives with the goal of developing indige nous, field-ready solutions for India's armed forces.
With this MoU, Medhastra becomes part of the IIT Madras innovation ecosystem, one of India's leading environments for research, deep-tech start-ups and techno logy translation. The association will give Medhastra closer access to the Institute's research expertise and innovation network for joint research, faculty collaboration, lab access and student engagement, streng thening its work on sovereign defence AI.