The CISF IIT Kanpur MoU, signed on Tuesday to mark National Engineers' Day, pairs the Central Industrial Security Force with one of the country's oldest technology institutes on two fronts at once. One agreement sets up a residential cyber security training programme, the other builds a Centre of Excellence for drone and anti-drone systems.

The cyber security agreement runs through C3iHub, the Technology Innovation Hub for cyber security at IIT Kanpur, and covers a six-week residential training programme under a three-year framework. Defence sources said the course will run on a non-commercial, free-of-training-cost basis, with each batch drawing 40 nominated CISF personnel. The curriculum spans critical information infrastructure, sector-specific threats in aviation, power and nuclear installations, digital forensics, incident detection and response, disaster recovery and business continuity, alongside emerging risks tied to artificial intelligence, machine learning, deepfakes, the Internet of Things, cloud systems and operational technology. A multi-sector crisis simulation module rounds out the course.

The Cyber Security MoU was signed by Shri Senthil Avoodai Krishna Raj S., IPS, IG/CISF Airport Sector-I, and Dr Tanima Hajra, CEO of C3iHub. Prof Surender Baswana, Programme Director, Dr Ras Dwivedi, CTO, Dr Anand Handa, CSO, and Shri Ajaya Kumar Misra, CFO, were present for the signing.


Why the training push traces to a 2024 directive

The cyber security half of the CISF IIT Kanpur MoU traces to a line the Prime Minister set out at the DsGP/IsGP Conference-2024, calling for cyber-capable security forces to be built up across the country's protective agencies. The Union Home Minister has separately directed that dedicated Cyber Commando capabilities be strengthened across Central Armed Police Forces and state police organisations, a directive this agreement is positioned to answer directly rather than in general terms.

The CISF IIT Kanpur MoU builds on an existing academic network

Neither agreement stands alone. CISF has already run a similar cyber security training MoU with IIT Ropar, and the force's academic partners for specialised training now include IIT Madras Pravartak, IIT Ropar, IIITDM Kancheepuram and IIT Kanpur. Tuesday's twin signing extends that network rather than starting a new one.

The wider objective, as stated in the release, is developing specialised manpower, applied research, technical infrastructure and operational capability across cyber security and drone or anti-drone technology, in keeping with the government's Aatmanirbhar Bharat push for critical infrastructure security.

A Centre of Excellence takes shape at Behror

The second MoU runs for five years and sets up a Centre of Excellence in Drone and Anti-Drone Technology at CISF's MPRTC facility in Behror, Rajasthan. It was signed by Dr C. Dhananjaya Naik, DIG/CISF MPRTC Behror, and Prof Jayandharan G. Rao, Dean, R&D, IIT Kanpur, with Shri Senthil Avoodai Krishna Raj S., Shri Savitoj Singh Gill, AIG/NCR Zone and Domain Lead for Drone and Anti-Drone work, and Prof Navroz of IIT Kanpur's Department of Aerospace Engineering present.

Research areas named in the agreement

The CoE's scope covers specialised training, drone and counter-drone systems, UAV operations, drone forensics and the cyber security of unmanned systems. Joint research will look at rogue-drone analysis, RF and micro-Doppler detection, integrated counter-UAS systems and high-altitude operations, with simulators, forensic laboratories, training curriculum and technical infrastructure to be built out at Behror over the five-year term.

The Behror centre extends an existing counter-drone build-out

CISF had already signed an MoU with the Drone Federation of India to develop Behror into a national counter-drone hub, covering deployment SOPs, forensic analysis and red-teaming exercises with Indian drone technology companies. The IIT Kanpur agreement adds an academic research layer to that work rather than duplicating it.

More than 7,000 CISF personnel have already been trained in drone and counter-drone operations across the force, a base the Behror centre is meant to build technical depth under rather than replace. The Central Industrial Security Force currently guards more than 370 installations nationwide, spanning airports, metro networks, nuclear facilities and industrial sites, which is the operational case cited for both agreements.

IIT Kanpur is now formally tied to CISF on both the digital and aerial sides of critical infrastructure protection, a combination the release frames as building institutional capability rather than one-off training batches.