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HAL will sponsor students at the masters level in technology and development programmes at the Centre for Technology Alternatives for Rural Areas (CTARA) at IIT Bombay. The aim of HAL is to help boost the supply of specialised technical professionals in development sector as part of it’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives.
While this may seem to be a CSR activity, it is also an example of industry-academia collaboration.
“Much of the demands of our society require engineering services and solutions. We believe that some of these challenges could be overcome through technologists trained in both engineering and applied social science skills. Hence, this new initiative,” says R K Tyagi, Chairman, HAL.
Earlier in the year, HAL established a chair at IIT Bombay and the company is also a founding member of the National Centre for Aerospace Innovation and Research (NCAIR) at IIT Bombay.
HAL’s support will be in the form of five fellowships for MTech students at CTARA.
These students will undertake relevant research in their second year.
The fellow will bring about new innovations, practices and research to key programmes and activities necessary to serve needs of the vast majority of Indians that are from the lower strata of the society.
The sponsorship programme, with CTARA, starts from 2014-15.
HAL has been taking up CSR activities in adjoining remote areas and have been conducting several medical camps, sanitation drives, infrastructure build up and has also been supporting educational institutions.
HAL has also established chairs for technology development at IIT Kanpur, Roorkee and Kharagpur. A chair has also been established at the National Law School of India University (NLSUI), Bangalore to reinforce best practices in contract management in the company.
