Karnataka, Kerala, Gujarat top in university-industry linkages in research: Govt report

Karnataka, Kerala and Gujarat have topped in the University-Industry Linkages (UILs) and have scored 7.8, 7.3 and 6.7, respectively, on the scale of ten in a research report conducted by the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The analysis conducted on the basis of ten parameters shows that UILs are found moderate in India with an overall score of 4.7 points out of 10 but surprisingly a lot of disparities have been observed among the states.

While some states fared well in the UILs, others are found to have moderate or weak UILs, the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry said in a press statement here.

The top ten parameters to assess the UILs were -- availability of university for industry, industry interaction with university, continuity in industry university interactions, frequency of university industry interactions, university support in providing quality solutions to industry, MoUs/Collaboration/Agreement between university and industry, patents gained in the last five years by university industry collaboration, continuity of joint research activities by university and industry, industry interaction with university students for research, and industry frequency of interactions with students for research.

Releasing the study, Shekhar C Mande, Secretary, DSIR, Ministry of Science and Technology, said that the Central government has come up with various schemes to attract private sector for total CSR contribution in order to boost research and development activities in the country.

He urged the PHD Chamber to motivate industries to adopt new technology for increasing the capability of technology absorption in the industries.

Dr DK Aggarwal, President, PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry said that states have to go a long way to achieve a higher level of UILs in research. "The lagging states must also adopt the best practices undertaken by the top states such as Karnataka, Kerala and Gujarat," he said.

"India, on the other hand, is at a very nascent stage of developing strong UILs. Though some improvement has been observed of late, one of the biggest bottlenecks in the country has been the absence of a clear policy for strengthening linkages between the university and industry," Aggarwal added.

The study identifies top 10 sectors of the Indian economy for capacity building, research and development activity and innovation namely agriculture and allied activities, agro and food processing, tourism, textiles, IT and ITeS, power, automotive and auto components, cement, drugs and pharmaceuticals and handicrafts and handlooms.

The top ten sectors of the Indian economy with strong UILs have been found with the UIL score of IT and ITeS at 17.7, tourism 17.4, textiles 17.1, agro and food processing 15.0, agriculture and allied activities 14.1, drugs and pharmaceuticals 13.8, automobiles and auto components 12.8, engineering 11.5, power 11.3 and cement 10.7, said the report.

The results indicate that industry consultation in setting pedagogy, gaining patents and regular interaction with industry has a significant impact on placement level.

Hence, the universities must ensure more collaboration with industries particularly in pedagogy and gaining patents which will facilitate higher employment level of students.

"Going ahead, there is an urgent need to re-draft and re-introduce The Protection and Utilisation of Public-Funded Intellectual Property Bill 2008 which will enable increased focus on the research and development activities and greater interest from the private sector to enhance the increased UILs in research," PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry said.

The industry body stressed that India needs to adopt a model wherein the concentration of industry clusters must be facilitated by state-of-the-art universities with centres of excellence, incubation centres supporting the research activities.

"It is essential that the universities and industry should come together to make concerted efforts to strengthen the university-industry linkages in the country. The government may support both the stakeholders to facilitate accelerating innovations in the country thereby making India globally competitive and strong economic power in the coming times," it further said.