MANTHAN

Brain Gain: Promoting Research and Innovation

Yamini Bansal Madalsa Singh Saniya Pawar

Aaradhya Srivastava Ayush Kanodia

Scope of the Problem

Migration of Indian Graduates Abroad The number of Indian students studying abroad in 2010 was 2,00,612 Several IT graduates had left India and emerged as important Entrepreneurs where 15% of the start ups today are supposed to by people of Indian origin

Lack of Commercially viable research India filed only 0.3% of total world

patents compared to China which filed as many as 15%. India’s total patent output from 1981-2011 was approximately 37,000. China’s patent output during the same period exceeded 150,000.

Lack of innovation Driven R&D from the Private Sector India has only 14 companies in the 2011 R&D rankings of the top 1400 world companies The highest ranking Indian company is Tata Motors which stands at 264 as compared to General Motors which is 9th

Current Scenario of R&D in India

• The private sector in India has no urgency for innovation. Corporates still believe that buying technology from abroad is cheaper and more feasible than funding research and development.

• The private sector had no reason invest in research and development before globalization but now, due to greater competition and more technological advancement, there is an urgent need for them to contribute to research as well.

CAUSES OF THE PROBLEM

Lack of Private Initiative

• In all these countries, industry spends more than government in R&D in some countries 3 times more than Government spending.

• In India, while total spending in R&D is around 1%, Government's spending is 2 to 3 times more than that the Industry.

• India spends only 2.9% of the world’s total expenditure on research against china which spends 14.2%.

Lack of Funds for Researchers

• There is a lack of attractive, commercially viable research for existing researchers. They have no monetary incentive to stay in R&D.

• Foreign countries have greater fellowships, greater opportunities to participate in industrial research abroad.

• Also, on UG level, due to the outdated curriculum and the lack of merit-for-innovation grading, most undergraduates end up changing streams.

• There is also a conflict of interest in possession of Intellectual Property Rights in cases where the Industry and Institutes have collaborated.

Causes

Increased collaboration between academia, research and industry to encourage the development of commercially viable research.

• 70-80% of investment in research in most foreign countries comes from private investment.

• Without high-quality, knowledge extensive jobs and innovative enterprises that lead to discovery, the Indian economy will continue to have a low standard of living.

• If private sector investment doesn't increase research will continue to be at a standstill.

Reasons for choosing the cause

Proposed Solutions

PROPOSED SOLUTION

Market-Driven Industry-Academia Engagement

Institute- Corporate

Consortiums

Training for high-end manpower development

Creation of field-specific,

collaborative R&D centers

R&D CENTRES

What is the R&D center? An ecosystem of R&D, design, innovation, engineering and entrepreneurship

• Central lab facilities with university partnerships which will be sponsored by private companies

• Jointly owned lab equipment which of common use eg: Electrical foundaries for semiconductor industries, super-computers etc

• Private companies can forward their problems of the pre-competitive stage like finding current trends, common optimization problems etc to university professors under this facility

• They will hold regular conventions for display of research, making road-maps for development and idea-exchange

Can borrow from models of global R&D centers like ITRI, IMEC for Nanotechnology

R&D CENTRES

Philosophy behind R&D centers Application of advances in technology in conjunction with entrepreneurship and product development for translating scientific technologies into viable commercial products

In India, there is little nexus between academic research in the premier institutes of the country and the requirements of the private sector.

Landscaping Conceptualization Product Design Servicing Product Testing Sales

University Professors and Researchers can assist the companies here

Why is this better than them working in their own R&D labs? • Jointly owned expensive infrastructure • Pre-competitive knowledge sharing • Opportunity to invest in high-risk research • Access to multitudes of technology on the same ground • High concentration of expertise in various fields

R&D CENTRES

Implementation

Identification of Potential

• GOI sets up a committee to identify scientific areas of importance

• Eg: Renewable Energy, Nanotechnology, CS-IT, Power, Manufacturing Engineering

Invite volunteer

signatories

• For each area, invite companies to voluntarily sign an agreement that would enable them to sponsor and secure returns

Set up basic infrastructural

facilities

• Land

• Basic Equipment

• Human resources

R&D CENTRES

Stake-Holder Analysis

Government of India

Private Players

Technical Start-Ups

University Partners

*Initial Funding for basic infrastructure (Upto 10 years)

*Consistent flow of funds

*Technical Solutions *Optimized products *Government incentives

*Infrastructure *Challenging problems

*New Ideas/Solutions *Consultancy

*Funds *Infrastructure *HR *Incubation

Technical research of *Strategic importance *Healthcare *Socio-Economic

TRAINING FOR HIGH-END MANPOWER DEVELOPMENT

For Universities

Gains for the industry • Technological Transfer

Activities- evaluation and acqusition of new technology

• Employment of newly acquired technical expertise

• Potential longterm employability with reduced risk

Gains for the University • Increase

employability of the students of the university

• Enthuse applied research

• Provide viable career paths

• Make higher education cost effective

Benefits from Industries • Provide Industry

experience fellowship • Provision of salary,

awards, fringe benefits and project costs

• Allow the fellow to work on industrial research groups within their facility

TRAINING FOR HIGH-END MANPOWER DEVELOPMENT

For Private Companies

Gains for the Industry • Up-to date manpower • Technology up-

gradation • Increase in knowledge

intensive jobs and projects

• Interaction with Professors through on the spot problem solving

Gains for the University • Funding and

remuneration in lieu of the knowledge

• Use of academic concepts in practical industrial projects

• Increasing the employability of students through the acquired teaching knowledge

Benefits from University • Core competency of

universities- teaching • A mutually beneficial

framework through • Specific courses

designed for industry participants

• Hands-on training and technology development particularly in labs and machinery

Institute-Corporate Consortium University of Stanford currently has more 40 academic department-corporate consortiums- startups to mature corporates- to provide education, research

partnership and connections to worldclass faculty and students

Status-quo • Independent

technical consultancy by professors in specific field

• No involvement of department/research group

• Only individual contact points and absence of a centralized consultancy platform for industries

• Cannot include multidisciplinary industries

Proposal • Involve

departments/research labs of IITs, NITs and IIMs to solve relevant industrial problems

• Invite highly specific Technical companies to fund the solutions in the departments for their problem statements

• Use the previously proposed R&D centers as free-lance technical consultancy at a fee/investment in research

Institute-Corporate Consortium Impact • Solution provided by various professors as opposed to one • Technical expertise of different tiers of research- Research Scientist, PhD,

post and undergraduates • Technical Industry benefits with association with a department- gives

future opportunity of involvement of problem solving • Students working in the department/research lab get hands-on

experience of industry problem statements • Introduces the relevance of applied research in the university’s

coursework • Access to state-of-the-art research labs and testing facilities for the

product development and testing • Involves the pumping of money in the department/research facililty as

opposed to the independent money owned by the Professor • Opportunity for Industries to work with the pool of scientific expertise

from abroad through the network of the existing professors

Incentives for Corporates to enter Industry-Academic symbiosis

• Reduction of anti-competitive product market regulations, which stimulates business R&D and strengthens the incentives to innovate

• Low level of restrictions on foreign direct investment

• Stable macroeconomic conditions and low real interest rates

• Availability of internal and external finance.

• Fiscal incentives, which can be effective in raising R&D

• Attracting foreign R&D

Why are we taking this cause?

Only 14 Indian companies in top-1500 companies worldwide in terms of their annual R&D investments

Academia Research Industry

Commercially Viable Technologies

Low research (Stagnation at University Level)

Absence of high-knowledge jobs and innovative enterprises (Stagnation at the employability level)

Lower competency at the world market in terms of product innovation and technologies (Stagnation at the industrial Level)

India still relying on stagnant primary industries (Stagnation at the economic Level)

Pyramid of Cost

Human resources:

Potential Identification Committee

Tax incentives to participating Private-Players

Infrastructure for R&D centres:

-Land

-Establishment Infrastructure

-Elementary Lab Equipment

Start-ups:

-Encourages technical start-ups for a paradigm shift towards tertiary sector and R&D heavy industries

-Less loss to countries abroad which have lucrative opportunities for R&D

Private Players:

-Can enter markets hitherto avoided due to heavy R&D component

-Better, more optimized manufacturing techniques to compete in the global market

Universities and Academics

-Increased funding

-More challenging practical problems

-Industrial component in curriculum through internships and real-life problems

Economically:

-Job creation in setting up and management

-Decreased dependence on import of R&D heavy products

-Attracts students for preventing brain-drain

Impact-Analysis

• Conflicts between private players and universities in the R&D center due to IPR

• Initial cost to be borne by the Government for setting up facilities

• Ensuring a scheme with well-thought out tax incentive schemes

We can seek inspiration from the various global models of R&D centers to mitigate the risks associated with IPR

Challenges and Risks

Sources

• http://www.nistads.res.in/indiasnt2008/t4industry/t4ind4.htm

• Thomson Reuters • DST http://dst.gov.in/white-paper.pdf • STI POLICY 2013 • European union report on R&D rankings • http://www.cci.gov.in/index.php?id=35&option=c

om_content&task=view • http://ec.europa.eu/euraxess/pdf/research_polici

es/mobility_of_researchers_light.pdf