In remebrance of the horrid spectacle that happened on this day, 17 years ago, we take a look at how India's tech landscape has forged as a frontline of sorts, to help counter terrorism in Mumbai. There are several AI startups in India that are focusing solely on ways to prevent terror attacks and build a stonger defence mechanism.
We deep dive into the startups that are furthering efforts to combat terror. These startups are working on building AI-powered machinery for defence or are using machine learning algorithms to sift through data to forecast urban terror risks before they materialise.
Indian startups that are leading the charge for combating terrorism
These Indian companies leverage AI for various things, including predictive analytics, automated surveillance, social media monitoring, and counter-UAV systems, to address evolving security challenges.
1. Staqu Technologies (Delhi-based)
Pioneers in video analytics, Staqu's 'Jarvis' platform uses AI to predict crowd unrest from CCTV, trained on 26/11-style siege data. With 500+ urban deployments, it's eyeing expansion to biometric threat scoring. This company was also part of the 10 AI startups selected by the Indian government for the prestigious AI Accelerator Programme in Paris earlier this year.
2. EyeROV
This Kerala-based marine robotics company builds AI-based autonomous underwater drones and vehicles for defence purposes. Johns T Mathai, Founder & CEO of EyeROV has confirmed that the Indian Navy has ordered EyeROV’s, a 300m capable drone equipped with sonar, cameras, and robotic arms. Their drones are used for tough underwater missions.
3. ideaForge (Mumbai):
From IIT Bombay roots, this drone maker integrates ML for autonomous threat detection, scanning coastal zones for infiltration patterns echoing 2008. Their tech powers Maharashtra's new drone policy, blending aerial surveillance with ground sensors.
4. Armory
This Gurugram-based Armory aims is to build AI-powered technology and products that defend the country against modern threats. They have built an Al-enabled counter drone system that detects, defends and destroys rogue drones.It has also developed indigenous counter-drone systems (C-UAS) using an AI-led operating system named Samaritan OS to detect, track, and neutralize rogue drones.
5. Vehere
Delhi-based Vehere offers AI-powered national security solutions including SIGINT (Signals Intelligence) for cyber defense, network detection and response, and lawful interception for law enforcement agencies. Its AI Counter-Terrorism software enables real-time data collection and large scale analysis across networks, empowering agencies to detect, decode, and disrupt threats with precision.
6. CloudSEK
This Bengaluru-based company uses an AI and machine learning platform, XVigil, to monitor threats from various internet sources, including social media, the dark web, and forums, from an attacker's perspective.
These, and many more companies in India, are solely focused on predictive systems for the defence sector. There are algorithms trained specifically on declassified data from attacks like the 26/11 and even the recent Red Fort blast (e.g., attacker movement patterns, social media chatter pre-attack) and these systems now integrate with live feeds from 1.3 million+ CCTV cameras across Indian metros. This helps in real-time risk scoring that flags things like unusual crowd densities or encrypted chatter spikes, potentially averting repeats of Mumbai's chaos.
Of couse, the integration of AI comes with security risks and unpredictable behaviour as well. Human reporting is still going to be crucial and a valuable asset in defence, especially with attacks of mega scale like the 26/11 one that happened 17 years ago.
On this anniversary, Mumbai stands not as a scar but as a blueprint. AI isn't infallible, but if wielded wisely, it can be extremely beneficial in the years to come.
