A lot is talked about Industry-Academia interaction in India. Hundreds of seminars/conferences have been held on this without much significant change on the ground. I think there are few key elements in this. First is the need, once the industry is convinced about the capability of academia to develop product and technologies and are in need of developing technology, they will come to academia. It cannot be by good wishes. It should be need based and expertise based interaction. On the other hand, an academic entity will also be interested in industrial problems if the goals of the entity are defined keeping industry in mind. The first part of the story that is the need of the industry was opened up by Liberalization of Indian Economy which sent a clear signal that without improving technology, Indian industry cannot survive. We all remember how in 70s and 80s Bajaj scooter or Ambassador car was difficult to purchase even after paying money, where not even a screw was changed from one model to another. The same company today brings out new models and designs every year providing own finance to the consumers to buy.

This has on one hand induced them to spend on their in-house R&D, on the other hand look outward for solutions. The first wave of looking outward was through buying foreign technology and collaborations. However, with the foreign companies themselves coming in the Indian market, it became increasingly difficult; also it became increasingly difficult for the medium and small industry to survive because they didn’t have in-house R&D at all. This brought out two trends; one is to run to consulting companies and the other to academia. Quickly, these companies realized that consulting companies offer only existing solutions but not innovations. This has brought out the next stage of development, which is that of start-ups, acquisitions and solutions from academia and research laboratories. This is the backdrop on which I see a brighter prospect of Industry-Academia interaction in future because it is

not based on philanthropy but on strong technological need of the corporate world.

With the opening up of economy and steady growth as well as project based funding in academia, a small number of faculty members started interaction with industry directly more in developmental work than in research

On the part of academic institutions also it was a steep learning curve even though Indian academia particularly those in higher learning institutions like IITs, IIMs had a large part of their faculty trained abroad, who were well aware of Industry interaction of higher academic institutions but were unable to translate it here due to lack of environment. With the opening up of economy and steady growth as well as project based funding in academia, a small number of faculty members started interaction with industry directly more in developmental work than in research. Initially, there were very few success stories. However, the few one’s had their multiplying effect and today we can see an ever increasing number of faculty members in these institutions involved with industry in both research and development.

Does that mean that we are very successful in Industry - Academia interaction today? Not Really. The rise of the curve is steep but it is yet to reach a point where it can be claimed that the industry-academic interaction has got a perceptible impact in the growth of Indian industry. Naturally the question arises, what is the way forward? One of the popular beliefs is this, industry should play an active role in deciding curriculum and syllabus which will bring more relevance of the student learning the industrial reality. I am particularly, not an appr over of this belief. The aim of education in these higher institutions is not skill development, but it is rather thought development with some amount of practical skills. The pace of obsolesce is so fast in industry today that if we make the curriculumon the basis of industrial inputs, the students will be at deep sea after a couple of years when he/she finds that all he/she has learnt is irrelevant and has changed. Hence in today’s scenario, to my opinion, there should be more emphasis on “Fundamentals” to improve the “learn ability”of the student. Let me explain it further, In today’s scenario, it is not important what or how much you have learnt, it is important whether you have learnt ‘how to learn your self’, because the skill to pick up new technologies will keep you always relevant. Hence, the industrial interaction should be used as examples in the learning process rather than replacing core learning with it. This might sound paradoxical but in the long run this is what more beneficial to the industry rather than having ready made finished products in the form of trained man power.

Finally, the philosophy of learning 'how to learn' with hands on learning experience having deep fundamentals is the strategy adopted by IIT Ropar. We have developed curriculum in which fundamentals, hands- on learning and societal engagements along with industry connect is augmented to make engineers of tomorrow. I am sure with the right mix and balance of these factors; we will be able to make the technologists of 21st century dedicated to the service of the society and the nation.