Adi Vaani, an AI-powered translator for tribal languages
With the launch of Adi Vaani, an AI-powered translator, IIITH is part of the government’s efforts at bridging the communication gap between tribal and non-tribal communities while safeguarding endangered languages. As part of ‘Janjatiya Gaurav Varsh’ – a year-long celebration of tribal pride, legacy and empowerment coinciding with the 150th birth anniversary of Dharti Aaba Bhagwan Birsa Munda, the Ministry of Tribal Affairs has launched an AI-powered translator for tribal languages. Titled Adi Vaani, the platform in its beta version supports Santali, Bhili, Mundari, and Gondi languages. The next phase of the project aims to include more languages like Kui and Garo. The app which is available on Play Store as well as a dedicated web platform has been developed by a consortium of premier institutions led by IIT Delhi and comprising of IIITH, BITS Pilani, and IIIT Nava Raipur in in collaboration with the TRIs in Jharkhand, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, and Meghalaya. LTRC@IIITH, has been involved with the project since July 2024.
IIIT Hyderabad celebrates 28th Foundation Day with a special focus on Cybersecurity
The International Institute of Information Technology Hyderabad (IIITH) celebrated its 28th Foundation Day on 2 September 2025, reinforcing its legacy of academic excellence and research leadership with a special focus on Cybersecurity. The celebrations were graced by Dr. Jitender, DGP, Telangana, as the Chief Guest, and Ms. Shikha Goel, IPS, TGCSB, as the Guest of Honour. Together, they inaugurated IIITH’s new Cyber MANTHAN (Cybersecurity Management and Next-Gen Technology Advancement Network) Center and TGCSB’s Vyuha Labs – a Cyber Innovation Lab. Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Jitender highlighted the critical need for collaboration between academia, law enforcement, and industry to tackle cybercrime: “IIITH is one of India’s most prestigious institutions — a dream destination for bright students. The institute has established a strong reputation for its academics and research in a relatively short span of time. I wish it the best for the future”.
Prof. Vasudeva Varma’s views on Why digital sovereignty should be India’s next big battle
Vasudeva Varma, professor at International Institute of Information Technology Hyderabad, suggests India can consider empanelled clouds for sensitive workloads or can adopt a dual-vendor model that include local companies (ESDS, Yotta, Pi Datacenters) and global CSPs. Organizations can also use open-source building blocks to assemble their own tech stack. “But the practicality, economics, and go-to-market aspects of such solutions often become roadblocks. Typical challenges include data and identity portability, network and egress costs, application rewrites or refactoring, and ensuring feature parity and operational maturity,” said Varma. The cost of hardware and software aren’t the only factors that make this migration difficult. Varma points out that the “biggest cost is on people and process” as it requires retraining IT admins, rewriting support runbooks, compliance re-audits (ISO/PCI/DPDP), and contract renegotiations with all vendors and partners.
IIITH hosts ABDM 2.0 Southern Region Consultation Meeting Organized by NHA
IIITH along with the Telangana state Research Collaboration network organized a full day consultation workshop on ABDM 2.0, for the National Health Authority on 29 August. The theme for the consultation workshop – Strengthening Data Standards and Interoperability for Public and Private Healthcare: Tackling Adoption Barriers and Enabling India’s AI Health Future”. Thought leaders and researchers from RICH, IIITH, ISB, BITS-Pilani Hyderabad, IITH, NIT Warangal & NALSAR are part of the Research Collaboration network. The workshop included a presentation by Mr. Vikram Pagaria, Director of NHA on the background, conception, technology, adoption, initiatives and accomplishments of ABDM 1.0 and goals for ABDM 2.0. Prof. Sandeep K Shukla, Director of IIITH, addressed the gathering and emphasized the resolve of IIITH to be at the forefront of digital innovation in healthcare and listed the institute’s efforts & work relating to the space.
Prof. Sandeep K Shukla’s views and vision on India’s Education Legacy in the AI Era
As India accelerates toward digital sovereignty and global leadership in AI, cybersecurity, semiconductors, and next-gen technologies, the role of academia in driving deep-tech innovation has never been more critical. IIIT Hyderabad, long regarded as one of the pioneers of interdisciplinary research, continues to stand at the forefront of this transformation. In this conversation, Prof. Sandeep K. Shukla, who joined IIITH on August 20 as the Director, shares his early impressions, insights on the institute’s unique research ecosystem, and his vision for shaping engineering education to meet the demands of the AI era. Interdisciplinarity is deeply embedded in IIITH’s DNA, thanks to its unique structure of research centers rather than traditional departments. These span Computational Natural Sciences, Social Sciences, Humanities, Robotics, Computer Vision, Language Technologies, and Quantum Sciences, creating a natural environment for cross-center collaboration.
Leadership Transition: Prof. P J Narayanan hands over charge of Directorship to Prof Sandeep Shukla
Prof. P J Narayanan stepped down as Director after an impactful 12-year tenure. Prof. Narayanan hands over charge to Prof Sandeep Shukla, who assumes office as the new Director of the institute from 20 August 2025. Prof Narayanan, who took over as Director in April 2013, is widely credited with steering IIITH to new heights in research excellence, academic innovation, and industry collaboration. Under his leadership, the institute significantly expanded its research footprint, strengthened interdisciplinary programs, and nurtured a strong culture of innovation and entrepreneurship. His tenure also saw IIITH deepen its engagement with government, industry, and global academic networks, cementing its position as one of India’s premier technology institutes. Prof Sandeep Shukla, an internationally recognised expert in cyber-physical systems, formal verification, and cyber security, joins IIITH from IIT Kanpur.
How One Of IIITH’s Oldest Centres Is Reshaping Communications Tech
If you have ever wondered what underlies research in futuristic technologies, then the Signal Processing and Communications Research Centre at IIITH is a good place to start at. Some current/futuristic technologies related to which the researchers in SPCRC work on include graph signal processing, satellite-based IoT networks, reflecting intelligent surface based communication, DNA storage, quantum computing, security and privacy. Here’s a sneak peek into the broad areas of research that are carried out at one of the oldest centres of IIITH. In nature, signals are everywhere. Speech, audio, images, sensory data, ECG signals, EEG signals, astronomical signals and many many more are all signals and to extract useful information from them is the art/science of signal processing. At IIITH, Prof. Santosh Nannuru and Prof. Praful Mankar work in different aspects of signal processing – graph signal processing and localization and tracking.
Independence in the Age of Algorithms: India’s Next Great Mission
In his Independence Day address to the IIIT Hyderabad community, Prof. P J Narayanan, Director, IIIT Hyderabad reiterated that democracy thrives on autonomy – but in today’s world, real independence also means freedom from digital dependence. Prof. Narayanan emphasised that the time has come for India to build its own secure technological foundation. Greetings to all on the occasion of India’s 79th Independence Day. August 15th is a very important day for every Indian, as it is the day we attained political independence. An important characteristic of our freedom struggle was its non-violent nature. We built a vibrant democracy that is the envy of the world. But democracy is not only about electing representatives; it’s also about the autonomy to make decisions at local, community, and institutional levels. We should ask ourselves if our autonomy is increasing or decreasing and if we are including everyone in the decision-making process. This is a big challenge for our maturing democracy.
Technology In Films: A Look Through The Ages
Prof. P J Narayanan walks us through the technological developments that have taken place over the last few decades in the movie making process. We’ve witnessed a digital transformation in almost every aspect of life, like the way digital transactions in the monetary world have replaced cash, the filmmaking world is no different. There too, we moved from the analog to the digital world. One no longer carries boxes of reels to theatres for screening; content is unlocked perhaps by a password and streamed via the click of a button. In this way, movies have been transformed albeit with the ultimate goal of entertaining people. From the first commercial movie created by the Lumiere brothers in 1895 to the first entirely computer-animated film, The Toy Story in 1995, we now have a whole spectrum of things such as live action, VFX, CGI, some digital content mixed with actual footage and so on. Today’s movies are way more sophisticated than what was possible in 1995. When these films started coming, the technologists thought that they would make all the movies and that there was no need for directors and other creative folks.
Medals at the International Linguistics Olympiad (ILO) 2025
India’s student team has pulled off a historic performance at at the International Linguistics Olympiad (IOL-2025), held in Taiwan from July 21 to 27, with all four team members winning individual honours — a first for India since it began participating in 2009. Competing against 227 students from 42 countries. The Indian team consisted of: V Surendran (Chennai) – Gold medal; A Misra (Delhi NCR) – Bronze medal; Nandagovind Anurag (Hyderabad) – Honourable mention and Siripurapu Bhuvan (Hyderabad) – Honourable mention. They were selected through the Panini Linguistics Olympiad (PLO) and underwent intensive training at IIIT Hyderabad under Prof. Parameswari Krishnamurthy, a long-time academic mentor for the Indian team. IOL is one of the 13 major International Science Olympiads. It tests logic, pattern recognition, and analytical thinking using rare or under-documented languages — no prior language knowledge required. Instead, students must crack linguistic puzzles using data and deduction, like decoding grammar rules from scratch.