Alumni plan 10 centres for industry-IIT collaboration

BENGALURU: The industry must spend more on working with academic institutions, said Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan on Saturday.

Speaking at the maiden IIT-Industry conclave organised by the IIT-Alumni Centre Bengaluru (IIT-ACB) on Saturday, he said that industry must take a leap of faith and trust academic institutions --  if not individually, maybe as consortiums (like in the USA) -- and identify centres of excellence.Just like Bosch and TVS Lucas establishing centres of excellence, the industry can set up 10 centres of excellence.

“If the government is ready to invest, the industry too must come forward to at least say they will commit Rs 1,000 crore for 10 centres,” he said.

Recalling his stint as the chair of the committee on cyber physical systems, he said that the government has a budget of Rs 3,600 crore for cyber physical systems. Of this, Rs 120 crore is to be released by March 31. The government also plans to set aside Rs 8,000 crore for quantum computing, he said.

Best practices for institutions need to be enlisted and shared among IITs for systematic implementation, he said.