New Delhi: Rodic Consultants has partnered with Nasscom to launch the Rodic InfraAI Innovation Challenge, a first-of-its-kind initiative aimed at accelerating the adoption of artificial intelligence across India’s infrastructure and strategic sectors.
Supported by Startup India through outreach to DPIIT-recognised startups, the Rodic InfraAI Innovation Challenge seeks to bring together India’s expanding AI and deep-tech ecosystem to develop scalable, deployment-ready solutions for some of the country’s most pressing infrastructure challenges.
The initiative marks the first milestone in a broader strategic partnership between Rodic Consultants and Nasscom to discover, nurture and deploy frontier AI technologies across live infrastructure projects in India.
By combining Rodic Consultants’ domain expertise, real-world project environments and infrastructure problem statements with Nasscom’s innovation ecosystem, while leveraging Startup India’s outreach to DPIIT-recognised startups, the partnership aims to bridge the gap between technological innovation and on-ground implementation.
Through the Rodic InfraAI Innovation Challenge, promising AI solutions will have pathways to be tested, validated and scaled across real-world infrastructure applications.
Rodic InfraAI Innovation Challenge to Focus on Real-World Infrastructure Problems
Unlike conventional innovation programmes based on hypothetical use cases, the Rodic InfraAI Innovation Challenge is anchored in real-world infrastructure challenges drawn from Rodic Consultants’ live projects.
Participating startups will gain access to actual project contexts, allowing them to develop practical solutions with a clear pathway from concept validation to pilot implementation and eventual commercial deployment.
The inaugural edition of the Rodic InfraAI Innovation Challenge will focus on four priority themes aligned with India’s infrastructure requirements.
The first theme, AI on India Energy Stack, invites innovators to develop solutions leveraging the Ministry of Power’s emerging digital public infrastructure for the energy sector.
The second theme, AI for Roads, Bridges and Tunnels, will focus on applications including asset monitoring, defect detection, predictive maintenance and construction intelligence.
The third theme, Climate-Resilient Infrastructure, seeks AI-driven solutions to strengthen roads, railways and transmission networks against floods, landslides and extreme heat.
The fourth theme, GenAI for Public Works and Citizen Benefit Delivery, aims to improve access to public services and government health entitlements through multilingual AI-powered platforms.
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Speaking on the partnership and the Rodic InfraAI Innovation Challenge, Raj Kumar, CMD Rodic Consultants and CEO Rodic digital Advisory said, “India is at an inflection point where artificial intelligence can fundamentally transform how infrastructure is planned, built and managed.
At Rodic, we have spent a considerable time working inside the country’s most complex highways, bridges, tunnels and urban infrastructure programmes, and we know exactly where technology can make the biggest difference on the ground. Through our partnership with Nasscom, we are creating a platform that connects India’s brightest AI innovators with real infrastructure challenges, not hypothetical ones.
Our objective is to identify technologies that can be tested, deployed and scaled across live projects, accelerating India’s digital transformation while building infrastructure that is smarter, safer and more resilient for the decades ahead.”
Ankit Bose, Head of AI, Nasscom, said, “Infrastructure is the backbone of India’s growth story, and AI has the power to reshape how it is built and maintained.
The InfraAI Innovation Challenge gives tech startups access to real industry problem statements, expert mentorship and a genuine pathway to deployment.
By combining Nasscom’s innovation ecosystem with Rodic’s deep infrastructure expertise, we hope to accelerate practical AI adoption that delivers measurable impact across India’s infrastructure landscape, while giving the country’s deep-tech founders a stage where their work can truly move the needle.”
Challenge to Create Pathway From Innovation to Deployment
The Rodic InfraAI Innovation Challenge has been conceived as more than a startup competition.
It is positioned as a long-term innovation platform connecting emerging AI companies with industry and enabling promising technologies to be tested, refined and deployed within live infrastructure environments.
High-potential startups emerging from the Rodic InfraAI Innovation Challenge will have the opportunity to advance into Rodic’s Pilot Partnership Program.
Under the programme, selected solutions will be validated on live projects before progressing towards commercial deployment.
The partnership also envisages strategic investment in select startups as part of Rodic’s long-term innovation roadmap.
Rodic Consultants’ Infrastructure and AI Innovation Focus
Rodic Consultants has played a role in shaping development across highways, bridges, tunnels, urban infrastructure, water, hydropower, energy, railways, metros and smart technologies.
Through the Rodic InfraAI Innovation Challenge, the company aims to systematically identify, validate and scale artificial intelligence, Generative AI, hardware and software innovations capable of addressing complex infrastructure challenges.
The collaboration with Nasscom is also intended to create growth opportunities for India’s startup ecosystem while strengthening the country’s position in AI-led infrastructure development.
The Rodic InfraAI Innovation Challenge brings together infrastructure expertise, AI innovation and startup outreach with a focus on moving promising technologies from real-world problem statements towards testing, validation, pilot deployment and potential commercialisation.
