 
Do public research in the University system
Indian industry is increasingly competitive in more and more technically sophisticated sectors. As our demand for more advanced technology grows, we increasingly need to connect with the national research system. In most countries around the world, basic research is funded by the state, and done in the university system. For us too, most basic research is funded by the state, but we made the decision in the 50s to locate most of this research in autonomous R&D institutions such as the DRDO and CSIR laboratory systems. This decision was patently wrong, and we continue to pay the price today. The problem is not that the quality of work done is poor - indeed the quality of many CSIR and DRDO scientists is absolutely first rate. The problem is instead that the work done is simply disconnected from industry, with no connection that justifies the huge public subsidy that is provided (this year just Rs 350 Cr of CSIR's total budget of Rs 1500 Cr will come from sponsored research; the rest is state funded. DRDO is considerably worse in the proportion of public subsidy). Today, about 4% of our national R&D is done in the university (including the IITs and IISc) system. This compares with between 15 and 35% of national R&D being done in the university system in North America, Europe, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. China too has increasingly moved public research from autonomous laboratories to universities - the university share of national R&D has risen from 4% to 10% in the last ten years. So the problem is not one of how much publicly funded research is done, but where the research is done. Doing research in the university system has a dual benefit: the first, and biggest, benefit is that education (and especially graduate education) benefits immensely. Graduate students get trained alongside the best researchers, as they learn from professors whose teaching is inspired by research. This would directly benefit us in industry - we would be able to staff our R&D effort with Masters graduates who have learnt how to do research even before they graduate. The second benefit is to research itself: having young minds work on cutting edge issues would enhance our research effort in itself. For thirty years, we have spent week on week debating how to connect industry with institutes. BY combining research and teaching in the same institutions, the problem simply goes away. Colleges have a direct linkage with industry - their students graduate and go to work for industry. The linkage is close, and automatic. Sixteen years after liberalisation is high time to address moving our public research effort to the university system. We must place this issue on the agenda for reform if we do not want our industrial boom to run out of steam. Dr. Naushad Forbes Member- CII National Committee on Technology & IPR Director Forbes Marshall Ltd. |
