bhubaneswar a memorandum of understanding mou was signed between the state government software technology park of india stpi philanthropist sushmita bagchi and iit bhubaneswar for setting up of an incubator namely centre of excellence for virtual and augmented reality varcoe at iit bhubaneswar herethe centre will undertake stateoftheart research develop testing facilitylaboratories for advanced algorithms application and methods in aid of virtual and augmented reality for immersive visualization and allied areas it will also offer highly focused courses on augmented reality to the students it will help in developing application platforms form specific skill development programmes based on the industry need said the official statementthe state government provided rs 25 crore for the centre stpi has given rs 25 crore for the incubator writer susmita bagchi has already given philanthropic contribution of rs 25 crore for this purposethe centre will be one of its kinds in the country the incubator on virtual augmented reality at iit bhubaneswar will be a landmark initiative for promoting research technology incubation and product development in the country it will cater to the startups and new generation entrepreneurs working in the area of virtual augmented reality for immerse visualization and allied areas said chief minister naveen patnaik msme secretary l n gupta said 162 startups ranging from healthcare and life sciences to household services it and internet of things iot to finance technology and food services are registered under the startup odisha initiative besides four recognized and 20 other incubators are working across the state for incubation of the startups he addedr v rajakumar director of iit bhubaneswar said the varcoe will be helpful for the startups researchers faculty and budding entrepreneurs it will leverage a high performance computing facilities available at iit bhubaneswar and faculty resources for research and applications in the areas including augmented reality and visually reality he addedamong others msme minister prafulla samal chief secretary ap padhi writer susmita bagchi and stpi director general omkar rai were present during signing of the mou