Finnish telecom gearmaker Nokia on Monday said it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Vadodara-based Gati Shakti Vishwavidyalaya (GSV), to collaborate on research opportunities in 5G/ 6G communications targeting air, land and sea transportation use cases, as well as standards development, smart factory/ automation, and AI/Gen AI labs.

The collaboration has a research focus specifically on leveraging Nokia’s network as code platform with developer portal and digital twins for transportation and logistics sectors, fiber sensing and AI, and optical network planning, the co said.

GSV is a university under the Ministry of Railways and the MoU was signed in the presence of Ashwini Vaishnaw, Minister of Railways, Telecom and IT, who is also the Chancellor of GSV.

“This important collaboration has very significant potential to leverage advances in the telecommunications sector for the entire transportation and logistics sectors. This MoU further reinforces industry-driven approach of the university to proactively co-work with the industry stakeholders for a Viksit Bharat,” Vaishnaw said.

He said GSV is emerging as an institution at par with IITs in the country in such a short time. “Today, three MoUs are being signed. It is an important milestone. I thank Nokia, Plasser India and Jacob for coming forward. Our approach is to focus on intense industry-academia partnerships. This will enable students to be job ready by their final year in the GSV institution,” Vaishnaw added.

“This agreement reflects how Nokia is driving its strategic focus of leveraging the broader B2B digital ecosystem. With its reputation for stellar research and innovation, GSV will be an excellent partner in pursuing these opportunities while supporting our mutual interests and stakeholders,” Raghav Sahgal, President of Cloud and Network Services at Nokia said.

GSV has also entered into several collaborations with leading institutions and industries across the world such as Airbus, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, Nippon Koei, Siemens, DPIIT, Karmayogi Bharat, VLSI Society of India, and Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport.

It has also partnered with IIM-Mumbai, BITS Pilani, IIT-Gandhinagar, IIT-Jodhpur, NITTTR Bhopal, PGUPS Moscow, Indian Maritime University for academic support.