After my February Innocolumn, I received two comments: First, could I write from my personal knowledge about an example of synergy between academia-industry; second, what exactly is a "boundary-spanning manager"? I hope to address the first question in this article and the second one in my article in April.
In this article I avoid dwelling on the fascinating science, which is a vital part of the story. I wish to focus on the evolution of the academia-industry interface and the denouement of events.
On July 22, 1976, New Scientist wrote a report about a cement factory in Banda district in eastern Uttar Pradesh: It could convert burnt rice husk ash (BRHA) and lime into Portland cement. Set up by Bhartendu Prakash of Asu village, the factory's process was based on the work of metallurgy professor P C Kapur of IIT Kanpur. The potential to transform BHRA into cement was already known - a patent had been granted to P K Mehta of the University of California. Kapur developed an innovative, affordable way to do so (hold your breath): at 10 per cent of the Californian process cost.
Independently, thanks to its participation in a meeting of the Canadian International Development Research Centre, Tata became interested in developing a low-cost, affordable drinking water purification system. In the early 1980s, E C Subbarao of the Tata Research Development and Design Centre (TRDDC) initiated a dialogue with Kapur on water purification. Leaping from cement to water purification, Kapur made a scientific connection through his work on BRHA. Quite cleverly, in order to activate minds and generate ideas, he introduced this subject as a BTech project at IIT.
With solid support from F C Kohli, then the chief of Tata Consultancy Services, Subbarao and later, Mathai Joseph pursued the subject relentlessly. The scientists developed a prototype and worked with KEM Hospital, scientific agencies and non-governmental organisations to validate the process and its field performance. Finally, a product called "Sujal" was patented by the TRDDC. This patent was further developed in the 2000s by the Innovation Centre of Tata Chemicals to enable "Swachh", arguably the world's lowest-cost, gravity-driven, bacteria-virus water purifier.
The narrative and the lessons are multi-dimensional: The science, the innovation journey as well as the product are all super exciting. However, my narrative is not about the science of BHRA, water purification or the cleverness of Tata; it is about how the fumes of serendipitous ideas can get adsorbed through a solid and active interface between industry and academia. Academia should not look down upon industry as money-making hucksters; neither should industry view academia as thinkers, who do nothing useful.
Publicly-funded research efforts often get bashed, but it is this kind of research that private companies can build upon successfully. This is the theme of Mariana Mazzucato's seminal work, The Entrepreneurial State. Mazzucato argues that "most radical, revolutionary innovations that have fuelled capitalism - from railroads to the internet, nanotechnology and pharmaceuticals - trace the most courageous, early and capital-intensive investments back to the state… All of the technologies that make Steve Jobs' iPhone so smart were government-funded, such as internet, GPS, touch-screen display, Siri voice-activated personal assistant".
The state must have the hunger to solve big problems and the confidence to pull them off. Lord Keynes had suggested that the "government should not do what individuals are already doing, but must do things that nobody else is doing". Imagine what an example and inspiration it would be if Indian agricultural, biotechnology and scientific research were really reoriented into a national mission mode!
According to World Bank/OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) data on research expenditure, India ranks 8 in the world, spending under one per cent of its gross domestic product on research. India may or may not as yet increase research expenditure, but renewal of the neural connections between public research institutions and industry can be beneficial. In this context it may be worthwhile to study what America has tried: institutionalised facilitation through small business administration, which implements small business innovation research and small business technology transfer (www.sbir.gov).
The author is a writer and corporate advisor; rgopal@themindworks.me
Disclaimer: These are personal views of the writer. They do not necessarily reflect the opinion of www.business-standard.com or the Business Standard newspaper
