Revenue exceeds annual grant in some cases
The premier Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) have recorded a 20 to 30 per cent increase in sponsored research in 2008-09 over the previous corresponding year. In some cases, the revenue from such research has exceeded the annual grant provided by the Centre.
IIT-Delhi, for instance, earned Rs 102.81 crore from research projects in financial year 2008-09 while it received Rs 100 crore as annual aid from the government. In financial year 2007-08, IIT-Delhi earned Rs 84 crore. The number of sponsored research projects, too, have gone up from 87 in 2005 to 138 in the last financial year. Similarly, IIT-Delhi has helped corporates in nearly 700 consultancy jobs.
“The earnings from sponsored research is growing year on year. Now our earnings are more than the government’s recurring aid. This is a landmark,” asserts M Balakrishnan, Dean of post-graduate studies at IIT-Delhi.
During 2008-09, the faculty undertook 27 international projects including seven from US defence aircraft manufacturer Lockheed Martin. Other foreign bodies who came to IIT-Delhi for help include Canada’s International Development Research Centre and departments of science and technology of Germany and Britain. Organisations from Sri Lanka, Kenya, France, Switzerland and Japan too got involved with the top engineering school for research work. Among Indian organisations, Bharti Airtel, Aeronautical Development Agency, Indian Council of Agricultural Research and various central and state government ministries sought IIT-Delhi’s assistance to seek solutions.
Likewise, during 2008-09, IIT-Kharagpur (IIT-KGP) received 167 research projects from the government, private and international funding agencies for a total value of Rs 158 crore and 142 consultancy projects worth Rs 13 crore, aggregating 309 projects for Rs 171 crore. This is a record for the institute. Over 60 per cent of the funds have come from industries in India and abroad.
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The most important one is the establishment of DVC-IIT Kharagpur research and development (R&D) centre for the power sector. IIT-KGP’s international funding agencies for research include Intel, National Semiconductors, Synopsis, Microsoft, General Motors, Orrick, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of USA, Geological Survey of Japan, SHELL International, DAV Norway and Texas Instruments, USA.
At IIT-Kanpur, in 2008-09, 140 new sponsored projects were started involving a total outlay of Rs 66.08 crore. The grants received from various agencies include BSNL. These projects are usually of 2-5 years duration with periodic appraisals, while research objectives and goals may be refined along the way.
K Muralidhar, Dean of sponsored research at IIT-Kanpur, says: “We have seen a 10 per cent increase in sponsored research in 2008-09 over 2007-08. Almost all the projects are government-funded but 10-15 per cent of our revenue comes from international companies and agencies like the European Union, Chevron and Intel. More faculty members are coming together for sponsored research and so instead of individual work, team work or collective research is the order of the day at IIT-Kanpur.”
IIT-Madras, too, handled projects worth Rs 200 crore in 2008-09 while in 2007-08 it was approximately Rs 110 crore. Job Kurian, Dean of sponsored research at IIT Madras, concurs: “The growth in sponsored research is phenomenal. Between April and July this year, we have already bagged projects worth Rs 60 crore. In the last five years, we recruited 150 new faculty to take the total count to 450 faculty at IIT Madras. All the new recruits are in the age group of 30-32 who are keen on research projects,” Kurian added.
At IIT-Bombay, while 2007-08 saw total sponsored research, including consulting projects, reach Rs 72 crore, in 2008-09 the institute bagged slightly more at Rs 73 crore. Rangan Banerjee, Dean of research and development at IIT-Bombay, says: “Large projects are distributed over a few years. We have around 420 faculty working on research projects. Although a large part of our projects are government-sponsored, consulting projects make up 10 per cent of our overall sponsored research which is industry-sponsored. We see growth coming from mainly consulting projects. Our target is to grow sponsored research by at least two to three times and carry out research projects of national importance.”