Prof. S K Shukla who took over as director of IIITH four months ago laid out his vision for the institute. Prof. Shukla said: I have identified a few areas where we can achieve significant impact. One of these is healthcare technology—particularly AI-driven healthcare solutions spanning data analytics, instrumentation, diagnostics, and wearables. A new centre, CDiTH, was established with a mandate to drive this kind of translational research. India faces an enormous healthcare challenge. For a population of over 1.5 billion, access to quality hospitals remains limited and often depends on one’s ability to pay. Second is cybersecurity, which is also my strength. In this, sovereignty will be a goal since India needs it. The government has spent a lot of money by supporting startups in this field but the results haven’t been great. The third focus area is Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI). We are in the process of finalizing a joint VLSI master’s program with the UoH, which is located next door to our campus.

IDRBT has signed a MoU with IIITH to collaborate in academics, research, training, student exchange and skill development in BFSI sector. The MoU was signed under the leadership of Prof. Sandeep Shukla, director, IIITH, and Dr Deepak Kumar, director, IDRBT, in the presence of Prof. H. Krishnamurthy, chief research scientist (Retd.), IISc Bengaluru, and member of the governing councils of both institutions. The institutions agreed to explore areas of collaboration for public welfare by leveraging their combined reach and capacity. Joint PhD programs will be offered to researchers in areas such as digital payments, cyber security, vulnerability management, adoption of AI for customer ease, cryptography, blockchain, and fungible and non-fungible tokens. Other areas of collaboration include standardisation and validation of technology in BFSI, development of domain-specific SLMs, cyber security initiatives, and improving user experience.

Aiming to equip aspiring software professionals with industry-ready skills, Microsoft on Wednesday launched its global flagship Data Centre Academy (DCA) at International Institute of Information Technology Hyderabad (IIIT). The initiative is being implemented in collaboration with Young India Skills University (YISU), with United Way of Hyderabad as the non-profit partner and Selasian Consultancy Services as the training partner, according to a release. The DCA is a global skilling programme designed to bridge the talent gap in the fast-growing data centre sector, as Hyderabad emerges as a major hub for multinational technology firms. It is the first such programme in the country aimed at preparing entry- and mid-level professionals for data centre operations and management. The release added that the academy will offer hands-on, industry-aligned training focused on practical, job-ready skills, with a curriculum benchmarked to global standards.