By Prakash Narayan-
The Vice Chancellor of Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, Prof. V Ramgopal Rao, Prof. Arya Kumar, Dean of Alumni Relations, and Sachin Arya, Head of Entrepreneurial Initiative at BITS, Pilani visited the Bay Area on Saturday, Feb 8.
Prof. Rao at a fireside chat moderated by Esha Kurwa shared insights on challenges in Indian universities, the role of industry-academia collaboration, and his vision for higher education reforms at an event held at the FalconX Incubator and Accelerator in Milpitas, California.
Prof. Rao has had an illustrious career in academia. He has over 500 publications in peer-reviewed journals and over 50 patents in Electron devices (instruments that use electrical circuits to perform tasks) and nanoelectronics. He has also received over 35 honors and awards, including the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize and Infosys Prize. He is a fellow of the IEEE and several other prestigious organizations, including the Indian National Science Academy.
Prof. Rao began his talk by speaking of the inverted model of funding received by BITS, Pilani (it should be noted that “BITS, Pilani” refers to a group of institutions in Hyderabad, Mumbai, Goa, and Dubai under the umbrella of BITS, Pilani) in comparison to universities in the US. BITS, Pilani receives 90% of its funds from tuition, 5% from sponsored research, and 3% from Endowments. Stanford University, on the other hand, receives 13% from tuition, 34% from sponsored research, and 26% from Endowments. Upon recognizing this disparity, Prof. Rao set an ambitious goal of raising $100m in endowments. Of this, $23m has been raised so far from BITS Alumni, including Prem Jain (who was in the audience). While contributing, Prem Jain said, “This contribution is about fueling the engine of progress at BITS Pilani. We need to empower the next generation of innovators and entrepreneurs to transform their visions into reality.”
Next, Prof. Rao spoke of the state of research in India. He lamented on the lack of industry participation in academic research in India. While India spends 0.6% of GDP on R&D, the US spends 3.4% of GDP on R&D. The difference is a contribution from the Industry. Research funding needs to be directed towards solving real-world problems. With the industry funding the research, the academicians look to generate value for the research. In the Global Innovation Index which ranked 132 countries around the world, India ranked 54th in gross expenditure on R&D as a percentage of GDP, 66th for university-industry R&D collaborations, and 81st in the number of full-time researchers per million population. In contrast, the US ranks 3rd in gross expenditure on R&D as a percentage of GDP, 2nd for university-industry R&D collaborations, and 24th in the number of full-time researchers per million population. In India, the low government spending for research and the poor academia-industry connection pose challenges to diversifying research beyond the IT sector and venture into deep-technology areas.
He provided the analogy of the Morrill Act of 1862 (also known as the Land Grant College Act). This Act gave each state 30,000 acres of land to provide higher education to the public. This act laid the foundation for a national system of state colleges and universities. It helped the U.S. become a leader in technical education. Prof. Rao expressed hope in the National Education Policy of 2020. He called this India’s “Morrill moment.” This policy aims to increase the state expenditure on education from 3% to 6% of GDP. He is hopeful that over time, this policy will lead to widespread improvements at the grassroots level.
He expressed optimism in the model created by BITS Pilani with its Practice School system – where students get the opportunity to work on live projects under the supervision of Industry experts, and faculty members of BITS. This has created a network of over 600 industries with BITS. This provides a foundation for exploring industry-sponsored research.
Overall, the audience of BITS Alumni and a few other luminaries, including Kanwal Rekhi and BV Jagadeesh, were enthralled by the discussion and the thoughts shared by Prof. Rao.
