New Delhi, October 5, 2024: The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) organized the Bharat R&D Summit 2024 in New Delhi, focused on boosting collaboration between industry and academia to drive research and innovation. Leaders from academia, industry, and government gathered to address challenges and explore opportunities for fostering India’s innovation ecosystem.

A FICCI compendium of technologies available for commercialization was also released during the event.

Key Focus Areas: Industry-Academia Collaboration

Ms. Jyoti Vij, Director General of FICCI, highlighted India’s strides in innovation but stressed the need for clear outcome metrics for research success and deeper industry-academia cooperation. She emphasized the importance of avoiding the middle-income trap by advancing towards a ‘Viksit Bharat’ through innovation.

Dr. Akhilesh Gupta, Senior Advisor to the Department of Science and Technology, underscored the role of public-private partnerships in overcoming barriers to technology readiness and called for greater private-sector involvement in research and development.

NEP 2020 and Translational Research as Catalysts for Progress

Prof. Sudhir Kumar Barai, Co-Chair of the FICCI Innovation Committee, discussed how the New Education Policy (NEP 2020) fosters multidisciplinary learning and promotes initiatives like the ‘Professor of Practice’ to bridge academic and industrial gaps.

Speaking on the occasion, Ms Anandi Iyer, Co-Chair of, FICCI Innovation Committee and Director, of Fraunhofer India Office emphasized the need for applied research models, such as Fraunhofer’s, to accelerate commercialization of innovations and better align academic research with industry needs.

The summit featured an exhibition showcasing over 50 research projects, reinforcing the message that increased private-sector investment and trust-building between academia and industry are essential for India to become a global innovation leader.