Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar said his Ministry will set up a committee to review how research parks in the Indian Institutes of Technology are faring.
Mr. Javadekar, who visited the IIT-Madras research park and inaugurated the country’s first university-based research park conference facility here on Thursday, said, “We have provided funds for several IITs to set up such research parks. We will set up a committee to ensure the efforts of IIT-Madras are replicated everywhere . This is the new India that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is talking about,” he said. Although industry-academia collaboration is talked about a lot, it is being effectively carried out at IIT-M. “There are start-ups, innovators and corporates in an ecosystem of innovation. They are enthused by the innovation of others,” Mr. Javadekar said.
The Minister said the successful model of IIT-M’s research park had encouraged Indian companies and universities to invest in research in the country.
The Ministry launched the ‘Smart Campus,’ campaign across the country in an effort to ‘save, conserve and recycle water’, besides water harvesting, he said. Premier institutes should carry out ‘relevant research’, the Minister said, adding that the second aspect of the IIT-M’s Smart Campus initiative was to ‘Save and generate electricity.’
