General Motors (GM) will extend its collaborative Research Lab initiative with Indian Institute of Sciences (IISc), Bangalore by another five years. GM honcho Alan I Taub, executive director (research& development), will formally ink the agreement with IISc on Wednesday. The world's largest automaker runs similar agreements with 10 other parties across the globe.Also, GM's two-year-old India Science Laboratory at Bangalore (The seventh and the only lab outside Warren, Michigan) has metamorphosed into a strong exploratory research lab. GM has decided to file for patents for the first set of innovations from the lab. The Indian centre does complementary research work on specific technology components in manufacturing, electronics and chemicals.GM and IISc's three-year tie-up, another case of complementary research, was formalised in early 2001 to focus on light weight materials and associated manufacturing practices. With the first phase, meeting expected parameters, GM has decided to scale up the relationship with IISc.Taub said, "India has a large untapped potential in the research space, particularly automotive research. While Indian research institutes have the capacity, we are looking to unleash the potential and ensure that the talent is deployed in the auto sphere."A senior official said that 15 to 20 academicians from IISc broadbase their research for GM. Of this, over 10 will fall in the collaborative approach, with the rest working on isolated projects in aerospace, chemicals among other fields. The official expects the number of IISc researchers to grow. Besides, GM is also expanding its network research associations with the academia and firms. While it has an agreement with all IITs except IIT Guwahati now, officials hope to bring this IIT too into the fold. GM also works with CSIR labs and has concluded discussions with the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Jadhavpur University and National Aeronautics Laboratory. Added to this, the company has tied up with HCL, Wipro and TCS's R&D wing Tata Research and Development Centre.Under the master agreement, GM will be the sole beneficiary of auto solutions evolved, while partners will be encouraged to focus on potential non-auto uses. They added that the original plan to ramp up the Indian science laboratory headcount to 100 by 2005-end, from over 40 now still holds and the engineering centre with 260 personnel will go for need-based expansion.
