National Association of Software and Services Industry (NASSCOM) has inked a deal with the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) to develop innovative technologies for the industry.

Under their memorandum of understanding, Nasscom and DRDO would leverage their expertise to develop projects for the IT industry.

"Creating upstream linkages with the Indian R&D institutions is a key part of Nasscom's focus on developing India's innovation ecosystem," said Nasscom president Kiran Karnik.

"DRDO has been responsible for developing a number of leading technologies in multiple focus areas spanning across aerospace, control systems, communication etc, which makes it the obvious choice for this partnership. As the Indian IT industry moves up the value chain, these areas are both of interest and relevance," Karnik added.

According to the DRDO, the partnership would also help in increasing the involvement of the leading Indian IT companies in various development projects of DRDO.

"The MoU that we have signed seeks to facilitate defining long term strategic partnership with IT industry and to take further actions for finalising methodologies for its effective implementation," said DRDO head M. Natrajan, who is also the scientific advisor to the defence minister.

IANS