Engines of innovation

IITs' new focus on research is welcome

Speaking at the annual convocation of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay in August this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi warned that societies — and, by implication, educational systems — that did not innovate stagnated. The IITs have long been India’s best-known and best-regarded institutions of excellence, which is presumably why the prime minister chose the IIT-B convocation as the location for this exhortation. But the lesson is one that the IITs may already have taken to heart, as a series of special reports in this newspaper has shown. It is clear that a new agenda that puts research and innovation at the heart of the IITs’ mission is being acted upon. A plethora of new IITs that have opened their door over the past decade allow this effort to reach a certain useful scale.

There are several such examples available. Consider IIT-Indore, which has chosen to involve undergraduates in the research process. IIT-Indore is a relatively new institution, but has one of the highest research citation scores in the country; four of every five of its faculty members have been trained abroad. IIT-Hyderabad meanwhile — which, when it reaches its full strength of 20,000, will be the largest of the IITs — is trying to become a research centre for 5G mobile technology as well as renewable power technologies, including batteries. IIT-Bhubaneswar filed for 15 patents in 2016-17, and doubled the number of its sponsored research projects. It is also trying to create a focus on entrepreneurship, which links up well to the actually expressed interests of younger Indians who are as willing, sometimes more willing, to join the start-up revolution in India as to go into a “regular” job or leave for a university abroad.

Of course, there are problems to be dealt with as well. Government funding will not be enough to fulfil the needs of all the new IITs, particularly given their ambitious research agenda. Thus, the IITs will need to change their focus further. IIT Bhubaneswar, for example, has high-profile projects running with the Defence Research and Development Organisation as well as the Indian Space Research Organisation. But government agencies are not enough. IITs need to work more closely with the private sector, both in their own interests and in the interests of the nation. Creating links between research institutions and private corporations is the best way to nurture and sustain growth-producing innovation in a market economy. As such, the IITs, particularly the newer research-focused ones, will have to work to bring more companies on board. The government should ensure that no roadblocks are placed in the way of this effort. Indeed, the IITs’ efforts should not be restricted merely to Indian companies; globally, the private sector should be able to look to the pool of affordable and quality researchers in India as a resource to be tapped. By doing so, the IITs will also be living up to the original design of Jawaharlal Nehru, which was restated recently by Mr Modi: To ensure that the IITs serve as an engine of innovation and growth for the Indian economy.