The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) have signed a multi-year Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to conduct joint research on blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI) technology. The collaboration will also establish the ‘NPCI-IISc Centre of Excellence (CoE) for Deep Tech Research & Development’ to foster innovation in these areas.
Blockchain and AI are emerging technologies that have the potential to transform the fintech sector and enhance the efficiency, security and transparency of digital payments. NPCI, which operates various payment systems such as UPI, IMPS, RuPay and FASTag, aims to leverage the expertise of IISc, one of the oldest and premier institutes for advanced technological research in India, to solve complex engineering and technological challenges related to scalability, privacy preserving designs, neural networks, graph AI, large language models, etc.
The partnership will focus on scalable blockchain platforms and multi-modal analytics over fintech data, NPCI said in a statement. Faculty members from five departments at IISc will work with NPCI researchers on practical problems related to these domains. The NPCI-IISc CoE will also facilitate knowledge exchange, training and mentoring for students and professionals interested in deep tech research and development.
The MoU was signed by Dilip Asbe, MD & CEO of NPCI, and Prof Govindan Rangarajan, Director of IISc, in the presence of senior officials from both the organisations. Asbe said that the collaboration will help NPCI to explore new frontiers in deep tech and create innovative solutions for the payment ecosystem. Rangarajan said that the partnership will provide an opportunity for IISc researchers to work on real-world problems and contribute to the advancement of science and technology.
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