Deakin University and Aikam (Telangana AI Innovation Hub) Sign Strategic MoU to Advance Applied AI, Skilling, Research and Innovation

HYDERABAD, India, April 10, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Deakin University, Australia, and the Government of Telangana, through Aikam™, 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.

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 Professor Iain Martin, President and Vice-Chancellor, Deakin University, and Shri Phani Nagarjuna, Founding CEO of Aikam™, alongside senior representatives from both organisations.

Reaffirming Telangana's strategic vision for global leadership in frontier technologies, Special Secretary, ITEC Dept., Shri Bhavesh Mishra, IAS, 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."

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.

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. It seeks to advance outcome-oriented efforts across three key pillars -

• AI Skilling and Education: Co-designed programs, executive education, curriculum development, and workforce training to build a globally competitive AI talent pipeline
• Research and Applied Innovation: Joint translational research, academic exchange, and knowledge creation in high-impact domains
• Ecosystem and Industry Engagement: Startup enablement, industry partnerships, and pathways for commercialisation and innovation-led growth

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.

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."

Highlighting the significance of the partnership as a step towards deeper global engagement and impact-driven collaboration, Professor Iain Martin, President and Vice-Chancellor, Deakin University 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.

Welcoming this partnership, 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 Dept., Shri Ravi Kiran, IFS, appreciated that this collaboration is happening at a highly opportune time and offers an excellent opportunity to leverage AI for public service delivery.

About Aikam™ : Aikam™ is India's first ecosystem-approach based open innovation entity, architected to propel the state into the ranks of the world's Top 20 Innovation Hubs. Aikam™ unleashes a first-of-its-kind innovation engine by converging critical pillars: the mobilization of population-scale datasets, mass upskilling of talent to create a globally competitive, AI fluent workforce, and the nurturing of globally relevant AI-first startup acceleration, backed by significant high-performance compute infrastructure. This robust, AI-first ecosystem is fortified by globally recognized leadership and a deep financing model via a dedicated Fund of Funds. By fostering deep, symbiotic collaborations across top-tier global enterprises, research institutions, and academia, Aikam™ serves as a borderless 'Global Proving Ground' for responsible innovation where the world converges to solve humanity's most pressing challenges.

To learn more, visit https://aikamglobal.ai or follow us on LinkedIn @Aikam. 

About Deakin University: Established in 1974, Deakin University successfully combines excellence in teaching, research and effective partnerships with industry and government to deliver high-quality courses and undertake research that makes a difference to the domestic and international communities it serves.

Deakin's South Asia operations commenced in 1994 at New Delhi, India, making it one of the first overseas education providers to set operations in this region. Here, Deakin engages with the government, industry, and academia to share its vibrant culture of education and research.

To know more about Deakin University and its various initiatives as part of its 'in India, with India, for India' approach towards engagement, please visit Deakin South Asia partnerships and pathways | Deakin

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