From Research to Commerce- The weak link
By: Amit Bhushan Date: 10th Nov. 2014
We again have ministers in government repeating the same old lectures. Scientist should adopt villages to boost farm productivity and people should pick up broom, if they want cleanliness. These mantras are not new and leaders of yesteryears have attempted preaching these enough. It must also be said that on the face of it, there is nothing wrong as this is one of the ways of achieving results i.e. if someone decides to pursue these as an end result in itself. However what society generally wants is developing an enabling economy whereby such tasks are carried out in spontaneous manner. On the face of it, if someone is asked a question about his or her readiness to pay for the services, then one will receive contemplative faces since 'all' people are always short of money and are already paying enough taxes where such services can be expected from the government and leadership to be delivered.
The missing link of migration of ideas, technologies or sciences to 'common man' and to the fields & corporate operations has been neglect in developing an enabling economy. While spending billions of rupees in research, we have neglected to create a system whereby research scholars can identify suitable organizations that can further invest into commercializing the research output as well as support to evolve win-win models. Thanks in part to our education system which completely neglects the training of the business environment aspect to 'students' of science discipline and therefore they are unable to 'feel' their way through the maze of bureaucratic organization structures to progress their careers, their own way. Many students may also lack the knack to identify 'value' that is cherished by society & organizations precisely due to this reason. This ambiguity remains even in the era of MOOCs where such subtle aspects may not be taught and as far as our news media is concerned, they can hardly be relied upon to transfer such information to society given the level of commercialization.
Therefore even though the requirements in the country about good quality cost effective solutions is huge, however our scientist, engineers and doctors are unable to churn out research based solutions which meets the need of our society from Universities or from government research centers. Even if something of value does get created somehow by fluke, then its commercialization aspect remain neglected. As far as corporate India is concerned it wants to put its money on ideas for which bank finance is readily available; which are mostly in case of proven foreign technologies, rather than risking capital on domestic research. So our research is mostly confined to Defence and Space where it is difficult to get other countries to part with technologies due to various reasons. Lack of incentive structures that have crippled the research and creativity in society and organizations and how can they be reinvigorated is not part of any think tank reports as well.
Occasionally, one may hear some innovative solution may be medical, agricultural or other fields being researched in India, however most such solutions are researched to be commercialized by MNCs based in India who are more open to shop for such technologies rather than domestic companies. Campus incubation centers did crop up in a few IITs and IIMs however they have not become common place in most Universities or the government research centers and they still may not have any links with government supported venture funds. The Agri-universites generally lack such incubation centers as well as lack comprehensive understanding of agri-economics to come up with anything that is commercial-izable unless by fluke. Most other centers continue with their 'routine research work with little outcome from public point of view' and putting deaf ears to implorations from leaders to align as public needs due to lack of 'systemic thinking in particular due to lack of supporting economy'.
By: Amit Bhushan Date: 10th Nov. 2014
We again have ministers in government repeating the same old lectures. Scientist should adopt villages to boost farm productivity and people should pick up broom, if they want cleanliness. These mantras are not new and leaders of yesteryears have attempted preaching these enough. It must also be said that on the face of it, there is nothing wrong as this is one of the ways of achieving results i.e. if someone decides to pursue these as an end result in itself. However what society generally wants is developing an enabling economy whereby such tasks are carried out in spontaneous manner. On the face of it, if someone is asked a question about his or her readiness to pay for the services, then one will receive contemplative faces since 'all' people are always short of money and are already paying enough taxes where such services can be expected from the government and leadership to be delivered.
The missing link of migration of ideas, technologies or sciences to 'common man' and to the fields & corporate operations has been neglect in developing an enabling economy. While spending billions of rupees in research, we have neglected to create a system whereby research scholars can identify suitable organizations that can further invest into commercializing the research output as well as support to evolve win-win models. Thanks in part to our education system which completely neglects the training of the business environment aspect to 'students' of science discipline and therefore they are unable to 'feel' their way through the maze of bureaucratic organization structures to progress their careers, their own way. Many students may also lack the knack to identify 'value' that is cherished by society & organizations precisely due to this reason. This ambiguity remains even in the era of MOOCs where such subtle aspects may not be taught and as far as our news media is concerned, they can hardly be relied upon to transfer such information to society given the level of commercialization.
Therefore even though the requirements in the country about good quality cost effective solutions is huge, however our scientist, engineers and doctors are unable to churn out research based solutions which meets the need of our society from Universities or from government research centers. Even if something of value does get created somehow by fluke, then its commercialization aspect remain neglected. As far as corporate India is concerned it wants to put its money on ideas for which bank finance is readily available; which are mostly in case of proven foreign technologies, rather than risking capital on domestic research. So our research is mostly confined to Defence and Space where it is difficult to get other countries to part with technologies due to various reasons. Lack of incentive structures that have crippled the research and creativity in society and organizations and how can they be reinvigorated is not part of any think tank reports as well.
Occasionally, one may hear some innovative solution may be medical, agricultural or other fields being researched in India, however most such solutions are researched to be commercialized by MNCs based in India who are more open to shop for such technologies rather than domestic companies. Campus incubation centers did crop up in a few IITs and IIMs however they have not become common place in most Universities or the government research centers and they still may not have any links with government supported venture funds. The Agri-universites generally lack such incubation centers as well as lack comprehensive understanding of agri-economics to come up with anything that is commercial-izable unless by fluke. Most other centers continue with their 'routine research work with little outcome from public point of view' and putting deaf ears to implorations from leaders to align as public needs due to lack of 'systemic thinking in particular due to lack of supporting economy'.