Govt. Promotes ‘Make In India Research’ At IITs; Allocates Rs.250 Cr Annually for Innovations

By Mohul Ghosh Last updated Nov 4, 2015

The spread of Make in India vision is now unstoppable.

After focusing on manufacturing and industries, which generated 2.75 lakh new jobs and resulted in an increase of 118% in employment numbers across the nation, Make in India will now focus on high end research work.

And the first step has already been taken by associating all IITs in the country with Make in India vision.

An annual corpus of Rs 250 crore has been created, which will ensure that India gets all the benefits of Make in India research work and help to create path breaking innovations. This special funds come with a condition that every research work should have a ‘clearly defined outcome’.

As per Indian Express, the goal of this excellent initiative is to leverage the research potential of IITs and create “innovative solutions to maintain their global competitiveness”.

This proposal has been created by Human Resource Development ministry (HRD), and further discussions would happen during 3 days “Visitors conference” in Delhi starting today. This high level conference would be chaired by President Pranab Mukherjee and attended by PM Modi and cabinet ministers along with IIT heads, vice chancellors of central universities and directors from NITs, IITs, IISERs and IISC .

An official in the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry said, “The proposal also seeks to foster academia-industry linkages in carrying out “high-end research” and promote innovations in higher educational institutes,”

How Will It Work?

IIT Council, which is the governing body of all IITs will spearhead this program and connect IITs with Make in India vision. IIT Council will govern this special annual corpus of Rs 250 crore for Make in India research work, and track the progress.

The aim is to leverage the regional IIT’s specialization and take it forward to create new, innovative solutions. For instance, IIT Bombay is famous for their research into Aerospace technology, while IIT Kanpur is known for world class research into Computers.

As per the initial plans, IIT Council will take up annual projects worth Rs 500 crore, and allocate them to the specific regional IITs which are specializing in that particular area. 25% of this overall expenditure would be expected from the industry, whereas 25% would be contributed by Department of Science and Technology. The rest would be used from the annual corpus of Rs 250 crore, which would be governed by IIT Council.

HRD official said, “One of the objectives of the council will be highlighting the potential of individual IITs and the departments that have given these institutes their fame,”

In future, Make in India research program would be expanded to NITs and other regional engineering colleges which are considered top rated for research work.

Earlier, we had reported that IIT Kharagpur will teach ‘Make in India’ vision, and help entrepreneurs to take maximum benefits from this initiative. A special fund of Rs 12,000 crore has already been created to support SMEs and India startups under Make in India vision.

This new initiative to tap research potential of IITs and NITs is an excellent step to empower India will cutting edge technology and innovation.