Roadmap For The Future

Updated on: Friday, November 11, 2011

The British Council in association with the University of Calcutta organised ‘Industry-Academia Partnerships’, a UK-India policy dialogue with the objective of debating and discussing the necessity, the present scenario and the future of collaborative research between academia and industry.

Distinguished scholars and representatives from industries assembled at the Alipore campus of the University of Calcutta on November 8 for the day long interaction to provide a ‘comprehensive snapshot’ of the scenario in India and the UK.

The participants included Prakash Kamath, associate director, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Dr Rakesh Roshan, ISIS, University of Oxford, professor Peter Dobson, University of Oxford , Christopher Rudd, pro-vice chancellor, Nottingham University, Charanpreet Singh, associate dean, Praxis Business School, Pradip Narayan Ghosh, vice chancellor, Jadavpur University, Malabika Sarkar, vice chancellor, Presidency University, Aloke Mookherjea, chairman, Flakt India Limited, D J Chattopadhyay, pro-vice chancellor, University of Calcutta, Ajay Roy, vice chancellor, BESU and Sujata Sen, director, East India British Council.

Dr Roshan, ISIS, University of Oxford while delivering the keynote address on the growing need for industry-academic relationships, said, “Such relationships encourage innovation and entrepreneurship, they are a source of revenue for academic institutes and an opportunity for industries to tap into the intellectual wealth available.”

Outlining the Indian scenario, Charanpreet Singh, associate dean, Praxis Business School, said, “India is becoming a knowledge economy with multidisciplinary research initiatives. But a lack of funds has led bright minds to join the corporate world or seek research positions abroad.”

Pradip Narayan Ghosh, vice chancellor, Jadavpur University gave a grim forecast, “Though we have about 200 centrally funded research institutes in India, there are only 1000 PhDs compared to China’s 10,000. Academic research is driven by its impact on the global community while research in a firm is driven by its impact on the company’s success.”

“However, university-industry collaborations, with equal emphasis on basic and applied research, are required as the former will receive funding and direction while the latter will retain its competitive advantage,” added Singh.

Taking a cue, professor Dobson projected the Oxford University Science Park at Begbroke while D J Chattopadhyay, pro-vice chancellor, University of Calcutta, held up the Kolkata Biotech Farm project as examples of entrepreneurship in the field of science and technology.

Roadmap For The Future

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