IIM Indore Hosts Rashtriya Kartavya 2.0 with MCTE, Indian Army

IIM Indore and the Indian Army bring management, military expertise, and AI together to solve national security challenges

The Institute hosts Rashtriya Kartavya 2.0, bringing Army and academia together

Indore, 12 August 2026: The battlefield of the future will not be shaped by military strength alone. It will increasingly depend on how intelligently a nation manages data, logistics, technology, resources, and human judgment. Bringing these dimensions together, IIM Indore today hosted Rashtriya Kartavya 2.0, a joint interaction programme with the Military College of Telecommunication Engineering (MCTE), Indian Army, focused on translating academic knowledge and military experience into solutions for real-world national security challenges.

The programme was inaugurated by Prof. Himanshu Rai, Director, IIM Indore. Major General Gautam Mahajan, Deputy Commandant and Chief Instructor, MCTE, and other dignitaries were also present on this occasion.

Prof. Rai said that Rashtriya Kartavya represents a deeper purpose that goes beyond institutional interactions, with every institution having a responsibility arising from its capabilities and role. He highlighted the common ground between the Army and academia in leadership under uncertainty, decision-making, logistics, resources, and technology. Calling for a shift from interaction to integration, he urged both institutions to jointly identify problems of national importance. “The more powerful question is, what problems of national importance can we solve together that neither of us can solve effectively by ourselves?” he said. Prof. Rai also emphasized that AI must remain guided by human judgment, ethics, and accountability. “From knowledge, we create solutions; from collaboration, we build capability; and from capability, we serve the nation”, he concluded.

Major General Gautam Mahajan said Rashtriya Kartavya seeks to combine military domain knowledge with academia’s intellectual and research capabilities to address complex national security challenges. Drawing on lessons from Operation Sindoor, he stressed the need for the armed forces, academia, and technology institutions to work together before crises emerge. Presenting three military problem areas, he said the Indian Army had brought “problems worth solving” and called for collaboration to progress from problem definition to research, experimentation, prototyping, and the development of deployable solutions. “The objective should therefore not necessarily be to develop the most complex solution. It should be to develop a simple and the right solution,” he said. He also praised IIM Indore’s growing role under the leadership of Prof. Rai, noting that the institution’s openness to collaboration and strong academic ecosystem can help address emerging national security challenges.,

The event featured an introduction to the Indian Armed Forces and a session on Warfare: Lessons & Evolution, providing participants with an overview of the changing character of warfare and lessons emerging from military experience. A dedicated session on Management in the Indian Army and areas of collaboration explored the intersection of military operations and management disciplines, including logistics, resource utilization, organizational effectiveness, decision-making, and technology.

The technology segment featured three problem-driven presentations exploring the use of AI in defense operations. The sessions covered AI-based supply chain mapping, AI-enabled road traffic management, and health monitoring of armed fighting vehicles, showcasing how technology can support logistics, mobility, maintenance, and operational readiness.

Adding a strong visual dimension to the programme was an Indian Army Weapon Display at the IIM Indore campus.

Rashtriya Kartavya 2.0 marks the next step in an emerging Army-academia engagement in Indore. The larger objective is to ensure that promising ideas do not end with presentations, but move from problem identification to research, experimentation, and solutions that can create measurable value on the ground. Rashtriya Kartavya 2.0 thus seeks to turn knowledge into solutions, collaboration into capability, and capability into national service, reaffirming IIM Indore’s commitment to fostering meaningful partnerships that contribute to national priorities through knowledge, innovation, and collective action.