Indian tech-market is at an all-time high with numerous multinational technology and communications companies setting up their research centres in India. In 2018, tech giants like Adobe, Nvidia and Intel have announced to set up state-of-the-art artificial intelligence centres of excellence in India. British Telecommunications (BT) has joined the fleet now with plans to work with Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and launch a new collaborative research centre in Bangalore.
The BT India Research Centre (BTIRC) will do joint research with the company’s other facilities that are located in China, UAE, USA and Northern Ireland. This global innovation network is centred on BT labs located in Adastral Park in the UK. The BTIRC will work on AI, mobility and cyber-security technologies.
IISc Paves The Way For Tech-Hub
BTIRC is not only a platform for analysts and scientists to gain industrial experience but it’s also aimed at the development of AI and other cybersecurity platforms for the company’s programmes, products and services. A partnership with a premier institute like IISC will help BT secure more clients in India. According to Howard Watson, CTO, BT, “In India, over 10,300 people in the technology, service and support areas serve our customers around the world. The BTIRC will create an exciting new hub for communications innovation with IISc, building new collaborative links between the UK and India in this crucial technology sector that is so central to economic growth.”
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We're partnering with the Indian Institute of Science – one of India’s leading research institutions, to launch a new collaborative research centre in #Bangalore. pic.twitter.com/BhZdCX3FOY
— BT Group (@BTGroup) December 12, 2018
This month, BT team arrived at IISc to announce their project with the Institute. Talking about this industry-academia partnership, Prof Anurag Kumar, Director IISc said, “Collaboration between academia and the industry is essential for making progress in the complex emerging telecommunications technologies. This will be a partnership between one of India’s premier research institutes, and a world leader in telecom technology and services. We at IISc are looking forward to exciting research results and new technologies emerging from this partnership.” The company also aims to work with Indraprastha Institute, Delhi and research on elastic optical networks and quantum key distribution technologies under BTIRC.
Is IISc-BT Collaboration An Unorthodox Partnership
BT is the largest provider of broadband and mobile services in the UK and the multinational brand has operations in 180 countries. The company first arrived in India in 1987, the first office was established in Delhi in 1995. Since then the organization has set up many plants in India, the list includes Mumbai, Gurugram, Delhi and Bangalore. The company caters to 200 customers across India. Infosys, TechMahindra, NDTV, Wipro are few of the loyal customer base of BT. The objective of the company is to help corporate customers focus on global competition, core-customer business and improve business reliability. These goals are achieved by giving Virtual Private Network (VPN) services using IP-based protocols.
Their initiative has been supported by both the Indian and British governments. They partnered with several universities and next-generation telecom network services like IU-ATC (Indian UK Advanced Tech Centre). The union aims to unite tech innovators, business, scientists and policy-makers from UK and India to survey tech governance and data privacy issues. The Cyber Security Operation Centre (CSOC) in Gurugram is one of the leading tech-service providers. It focuses on threat assessment, intrusion detection and prevention, ethical hacking and investigation.
Academic-Industry Partnership Will Bolster BT’s Products & Services
The rise of different pathways to achieve the best and the fastest technology has led businesses prone to data leaks and ransomware attacks. To keep up with the world, an enterprise must place its data, devices and customers on top and IT plays a crucial role in bringing about a digital transformation. BT helps business in securing their data, transforming system data to the cloud, encouraging collaboration, simplify networks and enhance customer services.
BT functions by connecting cloud providers to a core network to deliver secure high-performance connectivity. It invests in the latest network technology and provides dynamic network services, IP management and application acceleration. With the rapid increase in demand for work with real-time data and global online trading, there’s also an increase in demand for a secure and sustainable network. This network can be built by collaborating on the cloud.
