MHRD-AICTE-CII International Workshop on Industry-Academia Collaboration New Delhi, April 14-15, 2013

The Ministry of Human Resource Development under the leadership of Hon’ble Minister Dr. M M Pallam Raju has put academia-industry collaborations as one of the top priorities for bringing comprehensive reforms in higher education. The Hon’ble minister chaired a meeting with industry, academia and government representatives on March 5, 2013 to understand the issues, aspirations, challenges and successful models. This was a preliminary consultation among different stakeholders with the following objectives:

a. To develop a common agenda for collaboration between Academia, Industry and Government
b. To discuss possible operational strategies
c. To delineate issues for a larger and more comprehensive consultation possibly with examples of international practices and models through a workshop on Academia-Industry-Government Collaboration on15th April 2013

The March 5th workshop agreed that R&D investment in India could improve only through concerted and intensified collaborations between industry, academia and the Government, through diverse measures such as internships, research projects, research and training facilities, research parks etc. Employability quotients of graduates and post graduates were much below industry’s expectations and industry needs to spend large amount money and time to train them before absorbing. Skill development has been one of the top priorities and sufficient amount of fund and institutional mechanisms were in place. The challenge is to effectively implement National Vocational Education Qualification Framework in close partnership with industry. And finally, there is an urgent need for a professional and sustainable institutional mechanism that facilitates industry-academia collaboration at all levels.

Slideshow at a glance...

Reports & Recommendations

March 5 Discussions
Summary - March 5 Discussions	Transcription - March 5 Discussion

Leading Outcomes
Task Force on Research, Innovation & Entrepreneurship	Task Force on Research, Innovation & Entrepreneurship - Final Recommendation
Task force on institutional Mechanism	Task Force on Institutional Mechanism - Final Recommendations
Task Force on Skills & Employability	Task Force on Skills & Employability

Reports
Kakodkar Committee Report on IITs, April 2011	National Knowledge Commission Report 2006-2009
Narayan Murthy Committee Report on Corporate Sector Participation in Higher Education 2012
FAQs on National Knowledge Commission Report on Higher Education

Models of Collaboration
GITA	MITACS	Innovation Clusters	Presentations made at the Workshop on 15th April

Video Glimpse Of The Workshop

Mission Statement

Sowing the seeds of industry linkages in every academic institute, helping them unlock the potential for collaborations and preparing them to create human resource which is ready to take on the challenges of the 21st century.

Background Note

Science-based innovations, technologies and engineering determine global competitiveness and productivity of nations. Academia and industry should engage in joint research to encourage innovation and competitiveness in the global economy. Universities need to take cognizance of the changing needs of private enterprise in planning new courses and industry should recognise that support for education is beneficial. Big gains can be had if academic knowledge is paired with the knowledge of the market. In India, a number of initiatives for Academia-Industry linkages have over years yielded positive results in research, but, as these remain sporadic in nature, India's share in world researchers has persisted at about 2 per cent as compared to 20 per cent of the USA and China's, and while the share of R&D investments of the USA was 32 per cent, Japan 13 per cent and China 9 per cent, it was only 2.2 per cent in India. Significantly, an analysis of the share in R&D shows that in India, the Government share is 75-80 per cent, the private sector's share is 20-25 per cent, and that of universities is 3 per cent, while in OECD countries, the government share is 10 per cent, the share of the private sector is 69 per cent, the share of universities is 18 per cent and of the non-profit organisations is 3 per cent. As a share of GDPalso, India's R&D spend is about 1 per cent against a target of at least 4 per cent if double digit GDPgrowth is to be achieved. Currently, global investment in R&D is $1.2 trillion and significant share originates from the private sector through their collaborative research with academia. China has 300 research parks; and MIT has over 700 companies working with its faculty on projects of mutual interest.

Clearly, there is an urgent need for Government, Academia and Industry jointly taking some concrete actions. A number of committees have made several recommendations on this issue, significant among which were the National Knowledge Commission in 2008, the Kakodkar Committee Report in 2011 on Indian Institute of Technology and the Narayan Murthy Report in 2012. All these reports emphasised enhancing Academia-Industry collaboration for augmenting research, innovation, employability and greater productivity, through measures

Such as the following:

• Greater curricular alignment of engineering education with employment opportunities.
• Frequent dialogue between Academia and Industry through seminars and workshops.
• Summer internships to enhance employability.
• Adjunct faculty positions for industry professionals.
• Executive M.Techs and part-time PhDs for Industry personnel.
• Encouraging faculty focus on product development and industrial consultancy.
• Industry R&D labs at research parks adjacent to educational institutes.

Presentations by The Speakers

Mr. Ashok Thakur Secretary, Higher Education Ministry of Human Resource Development	Presentation
Dr. Ashok Jhunjhunwala Professor IIT-Madras Research Park	Presentation
Prof. Peter Hodgson Australia Laureate Fellow Alfred Deakin Professor and Director, Institute for Frontier Materials Deakin University, Australia	Presentation
Sir Mike Gregory Head, Manufacturing and Management Division University Engineering Department Institute of Manufacturing University of Cambridge	Presentation
Mr. Shlomo Nimrodi Chief Executive Officer Ramot (Commercializing arm of Tel Aviv University, Israel)	Presentation
Prof. Devang Khakhar Director, IIT-Bombay	Presentation
Dr. G. D. Yadav Vice-Chancellor ICT, Mumbai University	Presentation
Mr. S. Mahalingam CFO and Executive Director Tata Consultancy Services	Presentation
Mr. Jay Notay Dean, School of Transportation British Columbia Institute of Technology	Presentation
Prof. V. G. Das Director Dayalbagh Education Institute	Presentation
Prof. Robert Hendrickson Professor of Education Penn State University, USA	Presentation
Dr. Sujatha Ramdorai Professor, University of British Columbia	Presentation
Dr. Anup Patel Manager, Engineering Centre Efficient Fossil Energy Technologies Nottingham, UK	Presentation
Prof. Rajendra Srivastava Provost and Deputy President Singapore Management University Singapore	Presentation
Ms. Anandi Iyer Head, Fraunhofer India	Presentation
Dr. Anil Kakodkar Chairman Board of Governors, IIT Bombay	Presentation
Mr. Hari S. Bhartia Past President, CII Co-Chairman & MD Jubilant Life Sciences Ltd	Presentation