For all VR enthusiasts in India, this week was particularly exciting due to the announcement of the CAVE initiative by IIT Madras on 3rd August. CAVE or “Consortium for Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality/Mixed Reality Engineering–Mission in India” is aimed at initiating conversations between multiple stakeholders such as policy makers, technocrats, researchers and academia for accelerating endemic AR/VR/XR innovation.
IIT Madras is also the home to the only Haptics and XR research laboratory in the country – simply referred to as the Haptics Lab. The consortium will increase the rate of innovation and research in the lab particularly and can spur the entrepreneurial spirits of VR experts in the country. Moreover, stakeholders such as policy makers will be crucial for creating the governmental support needed to incentivize adoption of the technology.
VR initiatives and super highway
The Indian governance bodies have been taking active interest in bolstering technological innovation and adoption in the last few years. Multiple government related schemes to boost VR startups are popping up across different states of the nation – taking place as accelerators and incubators in top institutes.
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The government’s active initiative is an extremely positive sign – every country-level economic miracle in the last 100 years has been on the back of investments in cutting edge technologies with conducive policy structures. With the increasing ease of doing business of India – the stage is set for India to become a heavy weight in latest tech.
To further this vision, the CAVE initiative’s end goal is to create a ‘VR superhighway’ or ‘VR Corridor’ – a loose network of investors, entrepreneurs and startups which can together take on more ambitious XR and haptics projects such as researching common key technologies and information exchange. By cultivating a network of XR specialists, experts, policy makers, investors and bureaucrats – system level changes in the governance can be initiated or lobbied for the benefit of VR startups.
Green Flag for VR startups in India
With the growing investment schemes, financial support and technical expertise being mobilised by the Indian Government – it is the most conducive time to adopt VR tech applications and software. Many endemic startups are bringing VR tech to the Indian public to use in their daily lives.
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One such startup is NextMeet, providing virtual reality conferencing and meeting capabilities to individuals and companies alike. Identifying the lack of engagement in online video conferencing, the platform uses Virtual Reality to create a highly immersive and interactive environment for users which is conducive to long-term focus. The software is open for everyone to experience VR for free.
Due to the disruptive nature of virtual reality, countries across the world need to prepare to adapt to the impending change the technology will usher. The government of India has taken steps in the right direction to channelize the entrepreneurial spirit of the nation to innovate in VR and bring India to the main stage in cutting edge technology.
2 comments
Good initiative towards advantech 21st century. I was looking many years india is far away from global high technology. From last few years, i feel something is changing around us, due to Covid circumstances every one is looking for remote work, but due to lack of technology our time is still disrupting. Some people were managing their work by technical skills, but that doesn’t mean all are have technical skills, still people are following the traditional approach to manage their work, but they don’t know what future looks like, that is VR FOR ALL. Everyone looking for ways where they could feel like as physical space instead as traditional approaches. I am talking about virtual space. NEXTMEETS Initiative is better place for Technicals, technorants, entrepreneur, health and wellness* and more to meet their needs towards 21st generation tech.
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