Sarvam AI Inks Five-Year Tri-Service Framework With Headquarters IDS
Homegrown technology enterprise Sarvam AI has entered into a five-year memorandum of understanding alongside Headquarters Integrated Defence Staff.
The bilateral agreement establishes a comprehensive umbrella framework to build and deploy artificial intelligence applications across the Indian Army, Navy, and Air Force.
Under the partnership terms, Sarvam AI will design, develop, and integrate software tools addressing operational deployments, tactical training, and decision-support needs across the services.
The domestic startup will also provide follow-on technical support post-deployment, while Headquarters Integrated Defence Staff coordinates projects across joint organizations.
Administrative Structure and Corporate Clarification
Headquarters Integrated Defence Staff initially disclosed the agreement on October 26, before Sarvam shared public details on Tuesday.
Sarvam subsequently issued an administrative clarification on October 28 addressing reports that the agreement had been concluded directly with the Ministry of Defence.
Sarvam clarified that Headquarters Integrated Defence Staff (HQ IDS), an organisation within the Ministry of Defence, is the actual signatory; the ministry itself did not sign the MoU.
The umbrella structure extends across all three armed services alongside integrated and tri-service commands.
Sarvam stated that the shared stack approach enables the services to utilize unified foundation models, agentic workflows, geospatial tools, and perception systems.
ThePrint reported plans for Chanakya to support disconnected, locally hosted military systems, handle different forms of data and develop agent-driven software workflows.
Engineering learnings gained from projects in one military branch will be applied to inform deployments across the other branches.
Firewalled Chanakya Division and Model Architecture
All defence engineering responsibilities will be managed by Chanakya, a dedicated firewalled division established by Sarvam for national security initiatives.
Chanakya will deploy Sarvam's AI stack, including indigenous foundation models such as Sarvam 105B.
Earlier in August, the Defence Services Staff College introduced DRONA 2.0, a generative artificial intelligence platform utilizing Sarvam 105B for military training, research, and strategic studies.
Project execution under the new pact focuses on sensor-to-shooter data fusion, tactical target acquisition, and operational decision support while maintaining human oversight on military choices.
The Economic Times interpreted the human-oversight provision to mean that AI could flag a target for human consideration, rather than independently decide on an attack.
Sarvam co-founder Pratyush Kumar stated that the company's objective is to build artificial intelligence within India to support sovereign security dependencies.
Corporate Growth and Sovereign Infrastructure
The defence engagement follows broader corporate milestones, with Sarvam reporting revenue of 45.1 crore rupees in 2025-26 after an earlier valuation of 196 million dollars.
Under the central IndiaAI Mission, Sarvam is funded as one of 12 organisations developing foundation models after being selected in April 2025.
The startup previously signed regional agreements with Tamil Nadu for an IIT Madras research park and with Odisha for a 50-megawatt computing facility.
The military partnership directly supports national indigenisation directives and the central government's Atmanirbharta agenda in defence technology.
The stated objective is to keep defence AI development and deployment on Indian infrastructure; the agreement alone does not establish that every sensitive dataset or dependency has been secured.