Private AI for research labs. Unpublished data and invention disclosures stay in the lab.
Short answer. Research labs and R&D units hold records that their own rules require them to keep confidential. Wrongful communication of secret official documents or information is an offence. This applies to government and defence-related research. Pasting unpublished data into a public cloud chatbot hands them to a third party. ANVE is a private AI appliance on the office network, so work such as summarise lab notebooks into a progress report and draft a patent disclosure from internal notes for attorney review happens without the records leaving the building, for named users with an audit trail. DSIR recognises 2,535 in-house R&D units across 1,994 industries (as of 30 September 2025), alongside 37 CSIR national laboratories and about 41 DRDO laboratories.
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The rules that apply
Official Secrets Act, 1923 — s.5 (Wrongful communication, etc., of information): Wrongful communication of secret official documents or information is an offence. This applies to government and defence-related research.
CERT-In Guidelines on Information Security Practices for Government Entities (June 2023) — Applicability and clause 8.1: Cover government institutions and agencies under ministries' purview, which includes government labs. Third-party access to information must be restricted and governed by an NDA.
DPDP Act, 2023 — s.17(2)(b) (research exemption) — caveat: The DPDP Act exempts research processing not used for decisions about individuals. So labs' confidentiality risk is mainly official secrets and unpublished IP, not DPDP.
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How many offices this covers
DSIR recognises 2,535 in-house R&D units across 1,994 industries (as of 30 September 2025), alongside 37 CSIR national laboratories and about 41 DRDO laboratories.
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Records that should not go to a cloud chatbot
Unpublished experimental data and lab notebooks
Draft patents and invention disclosures
Project proposals and sponsor reports
Technical drawings and design files
Collaboration agreements and NDAs
Procurement and equipment records
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What ANVE would do for a research lab
Each task runs on the appliance, for a named user, and is recorded in the audit trail. Drafts are reviewed and approved by a person.
Summarise lab notebooks into a progress report
Draft a patent disclosure from internal notes for attorney review
Search past project reports and internal literature
Prepare sponsor or DSIR compliance reports
Explain and document analysis code
Draft a literature-review section from papers already held in-house
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Questions people ask
Can a research lab use ChatGPT with unpublished data?
No law names ChatGPT, but wrongful communication of secret official documents or information is an offence. This applies to government and defence-related research. Under the DPDP Act, an organisation stays responsible for processing done on its behalf by a vendor (s.8(1)). Keeping AI on the premises avoids sending unpublished data out at all. This is general information, not legal advice.
How many research labs are there in India?
DSIR recognises 2,535 in-house R&D units across 1,994 industries (as of 30 September 2025), alongside 37 CSIR national laboratories and about 41 DRDO laboratories.
What can private AI do for a research lab?
Summarise lab notebooks into a progress report; Draft a patent disclosure from internal notes for attorney review; Search past project reports and internal literature; Prepare sponsor or DSIR compliance reports. On ANVE these run on an appliance in the office, for named users with an audit trail.
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What is not real yet
No sealed ANVE unit exists; every image of the appliance on this site is a labelled render. The software runs today on a development machine. No customers yet, no certifications, no delivery date, and the final price is not announced.
Reservations are ₹999 in India or US$12 elsewhere, refundable in full until you confirm an order in writing (terms). Offices that cannot use cloud AI can apply to be one of ten design partners.
