Prof V Ramgopal Rao underscores India's need for a robust institutional framework and enhanced collaboration to bridge the critical gap between its impressive scientific research output and the development of market-ready technologies.
India has made significant strides in higher education, research output, patents and innovation, but needs a robust institutional framework to bridge the gap between research and actual technology development, noted scientist and academician Prof V Ramgopal Rao has said.
He also said that India's performance on several global academic and research parameters was encouraging, but the country continued to lag in converting scientific research into market-ready technologies.
Rao, Group Vice Chancellor of BITS Pilani, was delivering a lecture titled 'Unleashing India's Scientific Potential: Breaking Barriers and Igniting Innovations' at IISER Pune on Thursday.
"India leads globally in several parameters related to higher education, student enrolment, research publications, patent filings and citations. However, when it comes to actual technology development, there is a critical gap," Rao said, attributing the shortfall primarily to the absence of a sufficiently robust institutional framework.
He said the focus should be on creating mechanisms that enable researchers to move beyond publications and patents, and translate scientific discoveries into products and technologies that address real-world problems.
Rao illustrated the potential of such an approach by presenting commercially developed products created by his teams, including a heart-attack monitoring device, an explosive detection system and specialised sensors for the agricultural sector.
He said multidisciplinary collaboration involving experts from different domains was crucial for taking research from laboratories to the market.
"Building multidisciplinary teams and bringing together expertise from different fields can help convert good research into successful products and startups," he said.
Rao also highlighted the need for stronger academia-industry collaboration and greater emphasis on innovation and entrepreneurship within research institutions.
The lecture was organised jointly in the backdrop of Maharashtra Academy of Sciences (MASc) completing 50 years since its establishment in 1976 and IISER Pune completing two decades.
MASc president Dr Dinesh Amalnerkar gave an overview of the academy's journey and said its core mission continued to be the popularisation of science across society.
The lecture was attended by senior scientists and researchers, MASc office-bearers and fellows, besides a large number of graduate and research students.
During the programme, Amalnerkar presented copies of Dr K C Mohite's book Serendipity to senior researchers. The book was authored to commemorate the Golden Jubilee of MASc.