C-DOT Opens Sixth Centre of Excellence at IIT (BHU) Varanasi

India's telecom research arm has taken another campus on board. The Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT), the research and development body of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) under the Ministry of Communications, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Indian Institute of Technology (BHU), Varanasi for a new Centre of Excellence (CoE). With it, the chain of such campus centres run by C-DOT reaches six. The agreement was reported on 23 October 2026.

What the new centre will work on

The centre has been given a brief in next-generation communication. Its named fields are wireless communications, quantum technologies, cybersecurity and communication systems driven by artificial intelligence. The research list goes deeper still: 5G Advanced and 6G technologies, very large-scale MIMO (Multiple-Input Multiple-Output) systems, sensing merged with communication, AI-native networks and devices, and both quantum and post-quantum communication.

Who signed, and who spoke

The memorandum was signed in the presence of Pankaj Kumar Dalela, Executive Vice President of C-DOT, and Professor Amit Patra, Director of IIT (BHU), Varanasi. Faculty members of the institute and senior C-DOT officers were present, and the signing was followed by the formal opening of the centre. Dr Rajkumar Upadhyay, Chief Executive Officer of C-DOT, said the centre was more than a research platform and amounted to an investment in the country's future technology strength, adding that artificial intelligence, quantum technology, advanced wireless systems and intelligent networks would shape the coming generation of communication. Professor Patra said the tie-up would let the institute's students and researchers work on real problems of the telecom industry and would feed India's push for self-reliance in advanced communication.

C-DOT's network of centres

Why the tie-up matters

The stated purpose is to join academic research to what the industry actually needs, so that ideas tested on a campus turn into equipment and software that work on a live network. C-DOT describes itself as a market leader in home-grown telecom research, while IIT (BHU) brings teaching and laboratory strength. Both sides expect a steady supply of trained engineers for a sector that is changing fast, along with joint research projects and a regular exchange of knowledge between the two institutions. For an exam aspirant the lesson is simple: the country's telecom research is no longer confined to one government laboratory but is spread across a set of institutes of national importance.