The Indo Russia Innopraktika Technology Hub (IRITH) signed four strategic agreements at the first INNOPROM India 2026 industrial trade fair held from 9 to 11 September 2026 at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi. The pacts cover an India Russia Centre of Excellence for artificial intelligence (AI) and cybersecurity at Gorky Tech, cross border investment facilitation with the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), a NexTouch joint venture in India, and healthcare AI cooperation with SberMedAI. Together, they signal a shift in India Russia ties from energy led trade toward joint technology creation, local manufacturing and investment.
What Is INNOPROM India 2026?
INNOPROM is Russia’s main international industrial trade fair for factories, machines and industrial technology. The India edition, INNOPROM India 2026, was the first edition held in India from 9 to 11 September 2026 at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi, ahead of the 18th BRICS Summit.
The fair was jointly organised by the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Commerce and Industry of India. The event operators were Formika Event on the Russian side and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on the Indian side. The exposition covered about 10,000 square metres in Pavilion No. 1 and brought together more than 130 Russian and Indian companies.
The display covered mechanical engineering, mining, metallurgy, chemicals, information technology (IT), pharmaceuticals and medical technologies. The business programme focused on joint projects, buyer seller matchmaking and industrial cooperation between the two countries. Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and Russian Industry and Trade Minister Anton Alikhanov attended the exhibition, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin visited the INNOPROM exhibition at Bharat Mandapam on 11 September 2026 after their bilateral talks.
INNOPROM started in Yekaterinburg, Russia, and India has a long link with it. India was the partner country at INNOPROM 2016 in Yekaterinburg, with a national exposition of 3,700 square metres and 115 exhibitors. At INNOPROM 2025, India and Russia held a roundtable on moving toward $100 billion in bilateral trade.
| INNOPROM India 2026 in brief | Detail |
|---|---|
| Edition | First edition in India |
| Dates | 9 to 11 September 2026 |
| Venue | Bharat Mandapam, Pragati Maidan, New Delhi |
| Organisers | Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russia and Ministry of Commerce and Industry of India |
| Operators | Formika Event and Confederation of Indian Industry |
| Scale | About 10,000 square metres, more than 130 companies |
Bharat Mandapam is India’s large Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE) destination at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi. The International Exhibition cum Convention Centre (IECC) complex, named Bharat Mandapam, was dedicated to the nation in July 2023 and hosted the G20 Summit in September 2023. Spread over about 123 acres, it has a convention centre that can seat 7,000 people in combined format, six modern exhibition halls and a 3,000 seat amphitheatre.
What Is Innopraktika and the Indo Russia Technology Hub?
Innopraktika is a Russian non governmental development institute for technology transfer and human capital development. It was established in 2012 by Lomonosov Moscow State University in Moscow and helps move research ideas from laboratories into production through brokerage, intellectual property management and scientific consulting.
The Indo Russia Innopraktika Technology Hub (IRITH) is the India focused platform of this system. IRITH connects companies, entrepreneurs, universities and research organisations of India and Russia to advance science and technology cooperation. Its work centres on transfer and localisation of Russian technologies in India, joint research and development (R and D) and long term links between the two technology ecosystems.
IRITH is represented by Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director Debjit Chakraborty. The hub model follows Innopraktika’s wider plan to open technology hubs in partner countries. Innopraktika has already created a technology hub in China and has discussed similar hubs for the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Brazil and South Africa, which are all current or expanded BRICS partners. The New Delhi hub is meant to help Russian high technology firms find Indian customers, capital and local partners, and to help Indian firms enter the Russian market.
Four Agreements Signed at Bharat Mandapam
IRITH signed four strategic memoranda at INNOPROM India 2026. Each pact links IRITH with a different type of partner, namely a regional government and industry association, an investment fund and Indian technology company, a hardware maker and a healthcare AI company.
| No. | Agreement | Partners | Core purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | India Russia Centre of Excellence for AI and Cybersecurity | Government of Nizhny Novgorod Region, RUSSOFT Software Developers Association, Gorky Tech as host | Joint projects, knowledge exchange and startup growth in AI and cybersecurity |
| 2 | Technology and investment cooperation | Russian Direct Investment Fund, Panorama Electronics Pvt Ltd, IRITH | Promote Russian tech firms in India and Indian firms in Russia, facilitate cross border investment |
| 3 | Joint venture intent | Joint Stock Company NEX-T (NexTouch), IRITH | Set up a joint venture in India to sell NexTouch branded equipment and bid for institutional projects |
| 4 | AI in healthcare cooperation | SberMedAI LLC, IRITH | Explore AI and IT applications for diagnostics and clinical decision making |
The four pacts were signed in the presence of industry and official delegations at the trade fair. IRITH has described them as structured and actionable steps that convert shared intent into joint research, technology transfer and lasting business presence rather than one time sales.
India Russia Centre of Excellence for AI and Cybersecurity at Gorky Tech
A Centre of Excellence (CoE) is a dedicated centre that sets standards, trains people and supports research in one specialised field. The new India Russia Centre of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence and Cybersecurity will be hosted through the Autonomous Non Commercial Organization Gorky Tech in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia. Nizhny Novgorod is a large industrial and IT city on the Volga river in western Russia and the administrative centre of the Nizhny Novgorod Region.
The cooperation agreement unites IRITH with the Government of the Nizhny Novgorod Region and the RUSSOFT Association of Software Developers. RUSSOFT is Russia’s industry association of software product and service companies. The Centre is planned as a non commercial and collaborative platform based on equality, mutual benefit, understanding, respect and trust.
The Centre has a three part work plan. First, company to company collaboration will incubate and support Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) from both sides and build direct cross border partnerships. MSMEs are small firms defined in India by limits on investment and turnover, and they are a major source of jobs and local manufacturing.
Second, strategic collaboration will run through an India Russia Sovereign AI and Technology Trust Framework. This is a structured AI Sandbox process for company onboarding, validation and benchmarking, responsible AI evaluation and marketplace activation. In simple terms, AI tools are tested for safety, governance and quality, given a standard public facing trust record, and then made easier for buyers to procure. This is meant to reduce delays in purchase, speed up use of tested AI solutions and grow bilateral technology trade.
Third, academic collaboration will link the Centre with leading institutes including the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Gandhinagar. The plan includes student and faculty exchange and joint research. IIT Gandhinagar, established in 2008 in Gujarat, is one of India’s second generation IITs with a strong focus on interdisciplinary research.
Cross Border Investment Pact With RDIF and Panorama Electronics
What Is Cross Border Investment?
Cross border investment means money invested by residents or companies of one country into businesses, projects or assets in another country. It includes foreign direct investment in factories and joint ventures, portfolio flows and co investments where two funds invest together to share risk and local knowledge.
The second agreement links the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), Panorama Electronics Pvt Ltd of India and IRITH. A sovereign wealth fund is a state owned investment fund that invests national savings for long term returns. RDIF is Russia’s sovereign wealth fund. It was created in 2011 to make equity co investments alongside reputed international investors and became the sovereign wealth fund of the Russian Federation under federal law in 2016. It is headquartered in Moscow and led by Chief Executive Officer Kirill Dmitriev (as of September 2026). RDIF has reported joint implementation of more than 100 projects with foreign partners totalling more than 2.4 trillion rubles.
Panorama Electronics is an Indian systems integration and technology solutions company. It delivers projects in artificial intelligence and video analytics, smart and safe infrastructure, IT infrastructure, data centres, networking, cybersecurity and managed services. In this pact, RDIF brings investment expertise and networks, Panorama acts as the technology and business partner in the Indian market, and IRITH serves as the institutional bridge that connects developers, customers, capital and local partners.
Priority areas include artificial intelligence, machine learning, computer vision, data analytics and medical technologies such as medical devices, diagnostics, digital health and rehabilitation. Cybersecurity, digital and IT infrastructure, industrial digitalisation and smart infrastructure are also in focus. The stated aim is to promote Russian high technology firms in India, help Indian firms enter Russia and build a long term technology partnership that turns engineering talent into products that can be deployed at scale.
NexTouch Joint Venture in India
A joint venture is a new business jointly owned by two or more partners who share investment, risk and returns. With Joint Stock Company NEX-T (NexTouch), IRITH has expressed mutual intent to set up such a venture on Indian soil. NexTouch was represented by Alexey Rogatnev, Head of the Department for International Cooperation.
The planned venture will promote and sell NexTouch branded equipment in India and position the partners to compete for large government and institutional projects. The goal is to build a lasting industrial presence with local sales, service and possible localisation, and not only to supply imported goods.
NexTouch, founded as Nex-T LLC in 2009, is a leading Russian maker of interactive displays, panels, tables, information kiosks, terminals and software for education and public services. Its solutions are used in schools, hospitals and municipal offices, including equipment for inclusive education. The company works on its own electronic component base and high localisation of production in Moscow, including production linked to the Technopolis Moscow Special Economic Zone (SEZ). A Special Economic Zone is a demarcated area that offers tax benefits, ready infrastructure and simpler rules to attract manufacturing and exports. NexTouch has received Russian awards for industrial design and brand leadership.
For India, local assembly or manufacturing of interactive panels and kiosks fits with wider efforts to equip classrooms, hospitals and citizen service centres with digital hardware and to expand domestic electronics production.
SberMedAI Pact for AI in Healthcare
The fourth pact is a memorandum of cooperation between IRITH and SberMedAI LLC, represented by General Director Viktor Aleksandrovich Ushakov. It creates a framework to study how artificial intelligence and information technology can improve healthcare delivery, from diagnostics to clinical decision making. Specific projects, timelines and terms will be fixed through separate agreements in future.
SberMedAI, founded in 2020 and based in Moscow, is part of the health industry of Sber, Russia’s largest banking and technology group. The company builds AI tools for medical image analysis and medical text processing that help doctors diagnose faster, reduce errors and automate routine work. Its products include AI services for diagnostic centres and mobile diagnostic complexes for remote areas. At INNOPROM India 2026, Sber showcased its GigaDoc smart mirror from SberMedAI, which offers a quick express health check of basic indicators.
The cooperation is relevant for India because India is building national guardrails for health AI. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare released the Strategy for AI in Healthcare for India (SAHI) at the India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi in 2026 to guide safe and responsible use of AI in hospitals. The National Health Authority (NHA), which implements the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM), is developing an open health AI benchmarking platform with the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur to test AI models on Indian datasets before large scale use. Data stays at the source and moves only with patient consent under a federated design. Any India Russia health AI work will therefore need validation on Indian disease patterns, careful attention to privacy and clear clinical benefit.
India Russia Relations: Why Technology Cooperation Matters Now
India and Russia share a Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership with an Annual Summit mechanism, an Intergovernmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Cooperation (IRIGC-TEC) and working groups on modernisation and industry. The 12th session of the Working Group on Modernisation and Industrial Cooperation was held on 7 August 2026 at Vanijya Bhawan in New Delhi, covering rail infrastructure including the Vande Bharat project, aerospace, critical minerals, fertilisers and unmanned aerial systems.
The economic backdrop explains the push into technology. Two way goods trade rose from about $13 billion in 2021 to nearly $68.7 billion in 2024-25, driven mainly by India’s imports of discounted Russian crude oil. India buys Russian oil to meet the energy needs of a population of about 1.5 billion at lower cost and to diversify supply, while Russia values India as a large and steady market. This has created a wide trade gap that both sides now want to narrow by adding Indian exports in pharmaceuticals, machinery, electronics, textiles and food products.
At the 22nd Annual Summit in July 2024, the two leaders set a target of $100 billion in annual bilateral trade by 2030 and $50 billion in two way investment. The 26th IRIGC-TEC session on 20 August 2025 in Moscow worked on tariff and non tariff barriers, logistics, payment mechanisms in national currencies and an India Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) Free Trade Agreement (FTA). The EAEU is a five member economic bloc led by Russia that also includes Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and the Kyrgyz Republic.
The IRITH pacts fit this next phase, which Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has described as moving from protocols to production and from trade to industry. Cross border investment support, local joint ventures and joint centres for AI, cybersecurity and health AI can help diversify trade, localise production, create skilled jobs and build trusted supply chains for both markets.
Key Takeaways
- The Indo Russia Innopraktika Technology Hub (IRITH) signed four agreements at INNOPROM India 2026 held from 9 to 11 September 2026 at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi.
- The India Russia Centre of Excellence for AI and Cybersecurity will be hosted by Gorky Tech with the Nizhny Novgorod Region and RUSSOFT.
- The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), established in 2011, partnered with Panorama Electronics and IRITH to facilitate cross border investment in AI, cybersecurity and medical technologies.
- Russian company NexTouch (Joint Stock Company NEX-T) plans a joint venture in India to sell interactive equipment and compete for institutional projects.
- SberMedAI LLC, founded in 2020, signed a pact with IRITH for AI and IT applications in healthcare.
- India Russia goods trade reached $68.7 billion in 2024-25, with a shared target of $100 billion by 2030.
