Institute a mechanism for interaction between industry (including SME), academia & community

The BJP government launched “Uchchtar Avishkaar Yojana” in 2016 to promote industry-academia relationships.Under the scheme, it was proposed to invest Rs. 250 crores every year on identified projects proposed by IITs, provided the Industry contributes 25% of the project cost. The project was piloted in IITs and. was proposed to be scaled up to all institutiuons. However, no such scaling up has happened. The website clearly shows that only the IITs are the participating institutions under the scheme. 92 projects have been approved for 2016-17.

Interestingly, the press statement issued by the Ministry of Human Resource and Development in January 2019 and December 2017 mention 160 proposals were received under the scheme with Industry agreeing to contribute Rs. 156 crore. It means 0 proposals received since December 2017 and January 2019, 0 budget sanctioned and 0 rupees agreed to by the Industry. This is a serious concern about the implementation of the scheme

Further, the  2017-18 output outcome budget document of the Ministry published here shows a budgetary allocation of mere Rs. 75 Crore, a reduction of 70% from the announcement of Rs. 250 Crore the previous year. Further, 2018-19 output outcome budget document of the Ministry published here shows a budgetary allocation of mere Rs. 95 Crore, a reduction of 62% from the announcement.

A Council for Industry & Higher Education Collaboration (CIHEC) was also constituted with representatives from both academia and industry. However, no document/minutes/details of the meeting of this Council could be traced raising questions about the nature and substantive value of this Council.

The Start-Up Policy formulated by the All India Council for Technical Education promotes student driven start ups by various measure including industry-academia interaction. The policy mandates Academic Advisory Committee to have representation from Industry and Government as well as academia.

Efforts have been made to streamline linkages between academia and insdustry. However, they are not significant and consistent as the government has substantially slashed budgets of its most important scheme. Hence, it is classified under “Inadequate Progress”