Rashtriya Raksha University (RRU), an Institution of National Importance under the Ministry of Home Affairs, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Tata Communications to accelerate research, pilots, and capacity building on next generation and standards-driven secure communications for Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) and Armed Forces.

Guided by the Hon’ble Prime Minister’s vision of a digitally sustainable India and the goal of contributing to the $1-trillion digital economy, the collaboration establishes a joint RRU–Tata Communications Secure Communications Testbed to prototype, evaluate, and operationalize mission-grade networking across contested, bandwidth-constrained, and intermittently connected environments.

Importance for LEAs & Forces

• Mission continuity in hostile conditions: Next Generation data-centric design enables in-network caching and name-based retrieval, keeping critical messages, maps, and sensor feeds available even with intermittent connectivity, jamming, or infrastructure outages.
• Security by default, not as an add-on: Every data object can be cryptographically signed and verified.
• Interoperability across bearers: The stack is designed to ride over 5G/6G, satellite/NTN, tactical radios, and edge mesh, reducing dependence on a single transport and enabling rapid field deployment.
• Zero-trust posture for the field: Identity, access, and integrity are bound to the data itself, enabling secure cross-agency sharing while enforcing least-privilege access and auditability.
• Faster field roll-outs: A reference architecture and implementation playbooks will shorten pilot-to-production timelines for city police, CAPFs, and defence formations.
• Sovereign, standards-aligned approach: Work will align with Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)/Internet Research Task Force (IRTF) information-centric networking efforts and Indian standards bodies, supporting Make-in-India integration and long-term sustainability.

Collaboration pillars

• Joint Testbed @ RRU: Campus and federated nodes for realistic mission scenarios including lab-to-field telemetry and red-team validation.
• Digital Security Fabric Blueprint: Reference designs integrating network, identity, cryptography, and observability—with hooks for SOC/XDR and incident response.
• Pilot Deployments with LEAs/Forces: Controlled trials for secure messaging, body-cam offload, IoT telemetry, digital-evidence transfer, and command-post networking.
• Capacity Building: Joint training, certifications, and exercises for officers and engineers; courseware and labs to create a skilled national cadre.

Leadership remarks

“This partnership exemplifies RRU’s mission to translate research into real-world security outcomes,” said Dr. Bimal N Patel, Vice-Chancellor, RRU. “By combining Tata Communications’ carrier-class capabilities with RRU’s applied research and training ecosystem, we will help India’s LEAs and Forces communicate securely and reliably, anywhere.”

Dr. Tushar Sood, Senior Executive at Tata Communications, said: “NDN/IP-less architectures are a cornerstone of our next five-year technology strategy. Together with RRU, we aim to deliver field-tested, standards-aligned solutions that enhance operational resilience for India’s security agencies.”

Mr. Harish Chowdhary, CISO & Head–ICT & Strategic Projects at RRU, added: “Our joint testbed will let agencies evaluate mission use-cases end-to-end planning, deployment, forensics, and after-action review, so adoption is faster, safer, and measurable.”

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