Hyderabad: Deakin University and the Government of Telangana, through Aikam (Telangana AI Innovation Hub), today formalised a landmark partnership with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to advance collaboration in applied artificial intelligence (AI), skilling, research, and innovation.
This strategic agreement underscores the growing role of Aikam in shaping global–local collaborations in emerging technologies.
The MoU was signed at the Telangana State Secretariat, marking a significant step in strengthening global–local collaboration in emerging technologies and future workforce development.
The agreement was exchanged between Iain Martin, President and Vice-Chancellor, Deakin University, and Phani Nagarjuna, Founding CEO of Aikam, alongside senior representatives from both organisations. The partnership further reinforces Aikam’s role as Telangana’s flagship AI innovation platform.
Reaffirming Telangana’s strategic vision for global leadership in frontier technologies, Special Secretary, ITEC Department, Bhavesh Mishra, said: “This partnership reflects Telangana’s continued commitment to building a future-ready innovation ecosystem anchored in responsible and inclusive AI.
By collaborating with leading global institutions like Deakin University, we are strengthening our capacity to translate advanced research into real-world impact across different sectors of governance. This MoU reinforces our vision for positioning Telangana as a global hub for frontier technologies and talent development.”
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The MoU establishes an overarching framework for long-term cooperation between Deakin and Aikam™, Telangana’s flagship innovation entity designed to position the state as the world’s AI proving ground. Through this collaboration, Aikam will play a pivotal role in enabling scalable AI-driven transformation.
At the core of this collaboration is a shared vision to harness artificial intelligence for real-world impact at scale, with a strong focus on public good, economic growth, and workforce transformation.
Aikam Partnership: Advancing Outcome-Oriented Efforts Across 3 Key Pillars
- AI Skilling and Education
Co-designed programs, executive education, curriculum development, and workforce training to build a globally competitive AI talent pipeline through Aikam-led initiatives.
- Research and Applied Innovation
Joint translational research, academic exchange, and knowledge creation in high-impact domains, with Aikam facilitating collaboration between academia and industry.
- Ecosystem and Industry Engagement
Startup enablement, industry partnerships, and pathways for commercialisation and innovation-led growth, driven by the Aikam ecosystem.
A key initiative under this MoU is the establishment of the Aikam–Deakin Hub for Research in Intelligent Technology & Innovation (Aikam–DHRITI), a Joint Centre of Excellence in Applied Artificial Intelligence, further strengthening Aikam’s institutional framework.
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Highlighting the significance of the collaboration, Shri Phani Nagarjuna, Founding CEO, Aikam, said: “At Aikam, our focus is on building a globally-competitive, outcome-driven AI innovation platform that delivers real impact at scale.
This partnership with Deakin University is a significant step towards bringing together applied AI research, industry collaboration, and skilling to accelerate Telangana’s journey as a leader in applied AI. Through initiatives like Aikam–DHRITI, we are creating an open innovation ecosystem with leading global partners while building a bridge between innovation, policy, and deployment.”
Professor Iain Martin said: “This is an amazing collaboration between Deakin University and Government of Telangana. There is a huge convergence of emerging technologies happening currently across multiple domains like Data, Cybersecurity, AI and Machine Learning and this offers a wonderful scope for this collaboration to explore and build public sector use-case applications, leveraging the all-pervasive ability of AI.
Deakin University is looking forward to a mutually enriching partnership capitalizing on the technological leadership of Telangana towards furthering India-Australia relationship.”
This initiative brings together Deakin’s globally recognised applied AI capabilities and Telangana’s innovation ecosystem to deliver scalable and real-world solutions, support data-driven governance, and enable responsible and ethical AI adoption—areas where Aikam will serve as a critical enabler.
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Ravneet Pawha, Vice President (Global Engagement) and CEO (South Asia), Deakin University, said:
“This partnership reflects the growing strategic alignment between India and Australia, and demonstrates how global academic strengths, when combined with progressive policy and innovation ecosystems, can deliver meaningful impact at scale.”
“It is a privilege for Deakin to partner with the forward-looking government of Telangana to drive high-impact, focused growth and capacity-building initiatives that leverage the complementarities of need and expertise.”
Commissioner, Electronic Service Delivery (ESD), ITEC Department, Ravi Kiran, appreciated that this collaboration is happening at a highly opportune time and offers an excellent opportunity to leverage AI for public service delivery. The involvement of Aikam further strengthens the initiative’s potential to scale across governance frameworks.
