Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar inaugurated a research facility at IIT Madras on Thursday, April 27.  The Veena and Pratap Subrahmanyam Centre for Digital Intelligence, Security Hardware and Architecture (V&PS-CDISHA) will undertake various research works, the institute said.

The IIT Madras-developed indigenous microprocessor, including building a new class of computers to handle emerging AI applications will aid the research, as per a report by PTI. The facility has been established with a contribution of Rs 6.76 crore from Pratap Subrahmanyam, an IIT Madras alumnus of the 1985 Batch (BT/ME) and a Fellow at VMware Inc, a cloud computing company.

Another facility called the MacDermid Alpha Center of Excellence in Electronics Assembly and Skills Development was also inaugurated on the occasion. It is an automatic PCB (Printed Circuit Board) assembly facility established at the Central Electronics Centre of IIT Madras, with the support of Cookson India's (MacDermid Alpha) Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activity.

This programme aims to train about 1,000 engineers and diploma holders per year, a release from the institute said. Apprenticeship is a part of this programme. Professor V Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, and senior officials participated in the inauguration ceremony, as per PTI.