Academic Entrepreneurship: A Case in India

Indian Academic Scenario

India is identified at an inflexion point on to be among the fastest growing economies of the world. India is on a high growth trajectory and the Government must ensure that no region is left behind. On the other hand the primary focus of India now lies in leveraging its vast demographic potential by educating and training over 130 million people in the age group of 18-23 years with skills and capabilities relevant to the demands of a modern knowledge based economy. There remains an urgent need to modify the vast and unwieldy legacy higher education system that seems to have lost much of its importance in today’s technologically advanced and strongly connected world. The educational infrastructure all over the country is inadequate to support our ambitious targets of increased enrolment and suffers from severe issues of quality and relevance to the job market and is unable to provide universal access to training and education. Solution to these problems is always a challenge for the Government but the requirements for arriving at sustainable solutions have now become an urgent issue. Inclusive growth is required for being socially, economically and politically sustainable.

The eastern and north-eastern states of the country face these problems more acutely and are the major focus of this report. These regions present unique challenges. It is believed that the conventional market-based solutions are not workable here, given the many market failures that exist here – unemployment, connectivity, poor infrastructure, law and order problems and low economic development, etc. It is believed that the Government needs to take the leading role in solving the problems of this region. This departs us from our reliable viewpoint that the private sector should be allowed greater opportunities in higher education and vocational trainings. It is believe that realistic reforms of the educational sector are required. It is also well acknowledged that the Government alone will not be able to solve all the problems. Also, it cannot be denied and may not be possible to divert the requirement of resources for creating the necessary infrastructure for higher and vocational education, given the requirements of primary and secondary education, primary health and nutrition etc. The Government should actively participate in the act of collaborating the creative and entrepreneurial energy, talents and resources of the private sector in vocational and higher education. There should not be a competing environment among the Government and the private sector. Private for-profit and foreign educators should be allowed in the vocational and higher education space and focus on areas where the private sector would have less incentive to enter -remote, inaccessible rural areas. It is seen that the commercial interest is low among the population of the eastern and particularly the north-eastern regions and therefore the requirement for financial help from the government and provision of vocational and higher education institutions (HEI).

A critical driver of increased productivity is the formal education and therefore leads to economic development. There is thus a strong rationale behind investment in human capital. While it is argued for public provision of HEI as well as vocational training institutions, it is believed that the focus should be on providing education and training that on the other hand will provide local employment in sectors in which the state has rich natural resources. A topic of intense debate is the issue of employability and relevance to the needs of industry of our graduates. This is a critical factor for inclusive growth as it would stimulate economic activity that is relevant to local conditions. This is the key message of this report: training and education for local development and employment. It has been found that Eastern states have mixed progress in restructuring their higher and vocational education system. Orissa has made significant advancement in figuring out a reform road map for restructuring and developing its vocational and higher education system and aligning it to its economic potential; other states in the east are yet to prioritize any publicly enunciated agenda of actions. The Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) is a part of the Ministry of Science and Technology. The primary endeavour of DSIR is to promote research and development by the industries, support a large cross section of small and medium industrial units to develop state-of-the art globally competitive technologies of high commercial potential, catalyse faster commercialization of lab-scale R & D, strengthen industrial consultancy and technology management capabilities and establish under friendly information network to facilitate scientific and industrial research in the country. In this context, there are number of plan such as Technology Promotion, Development and Utilization (TPDU) Programmes, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Consultancy Development Centre (CDC), National Research Development Corporation (NRDC) and Central Electronics Limited (CEL). The scheme Technology Promotion, Development and Utilization (TPDU) Programmes has been formulated by merging the research & Development by Industry (RDI), Programme Aimed at Technological Self-Reliance (PATSER), Scheme to Enhance the Efficacy of Transfer of Technology (SEETOT) and APCTT. Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) is among the world's largest publicly funded R&D organisation. CSIR's pioneering sustained contribution to Science and Technology human resource development is acclaimed nationally. The institutes use all above mention funding in order to enhance education system and promote research in institute ecosystem. Against the background of these changes, the proposed project intends to examine the scope and opportunity of institute research for industrial application, investigates varied types of interactions between institute and industry, identifies factors that were perceived by institute departments as playing a major role in enhancing as well as limiting the interaction; and identifies the role of government in initiating and sustaining the interactions.

Altogether with all other universities in the world class universities system, every university that may not hold a position of world-class university still has to play the same role. The role of such a system would be to balance its aspirations about, education, research and service, all types of social and economic problems, social and cultural development, professions, vocations, humanities and arts; and economic, sciences, for driving the knowledge base of Indian economy to face of global competition. It may be desired by some of the universities in the world-class university system to hold itself in the positions of premier comprehensive universities of the world in contrast to others seeking a premier niche in the world; and the rest would simply desire to be the leader on their positions and their activities. World-class universities are not the only options for imparting or dominating high-quality education, research and service. It can also be ‘woven into the fabric’ of the university system of any country for sustaining the knowledge ecology. In the present time, Along with the strength of the US university system there are many in its world class university system. The network of institutions are highly connected, having its association with the private and public four-year teaching universities, degree-granting community colleges, land-grant universities with a heavy service mission and private and public research universities (involving the world-class universities), Each of them possessing a different niche and serving a different requirement. So, all the academic institutions collaborate, cooperate and compete with each other. Innovation and development infrastructure of the country is formed by the collaboration of colleges, private-public universities and land-grant universities. Among the 350 universities of India, it has many top world-class universities today, but lacks in a world-class university system. “The Knowledge Commission has documented the strengths and shortcomings of the present Indian university system and recommended changes to transform it (National Knowledge Commission 2006a, 2006b). The University Grants Commission (UGC) is planning to ‘mega’ expand the number of universities and upgrade existing ones in the eleventh five-year plan, based on the recommendations of the Knowledge Commission (2008)”. In his reply to the trust vote motion on 22 July 2008 then Prime Minister said “the [Indian] government has initiated a major thrust in expanding higher education . . . an ambitious programme which seeks to create 30 new universities, of which 14 will be world class, 8 new IITs [Indian Institutes of Technology], 7 new IIMs [Indian Institutes of Management], 20 new IIITs [Indian Institutes of Information Technology], 5 new IISERs [Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research], 2 Schools of Planning and Architecture [SPA], 10 NITs [National Institutes of Technology], 373 new degree colleges and 1000 new polytechnics. And these are not just plans. Three new IISERs46 Envisioning world-class universities are already operational and the remaining two will become operational from the 2008–09 academic sessions. Two SPAs will be starting this year. Six of the new IITs start their classes this year. The establishment of the new universities is at an advanced stage of planning”. Still all these new and old institutions altogether may not yield a world-class university system if there is not a strategy to weave them together into one. The concept of strategy has its origins in the art of warfare from which it has been applied extensively into business management and is now becoming a part of higher education management without a strategy; they may not create a rising tide of higher education which will lift all of them to new levels of excellence sought by the country.

Strategy, at its core, is a systematic response to a dynamic, chaotic, turbulent environment to achieve the ends. A strategic plan postulates the ends and the means to achieve them efficiently and effectively. A strategic response ideally is efficient – uses the minimum of resources, and is effective –achieves the ends. It is based on sensing the changes in opportunities and threats in the dynamic environment and responding to them knowing the strengths and weaknesses of the organization – the resources it has. For India, strategic planning is the process for developing world class university system and not a solution to the problems of such universities. Researchers has posed doubt on the applicability in higher education of such planning (Maria de Lourdes, Minooand & James Stover, 2004; Cowburn, 2005). Others have criticized the concept of Lip servicing by institutions rather than practicing. Literature says that a large number of universities adopt this concept for various purposes– at times for satisfying the accrediting agencies, it is simply, sometimes for relations for public and many times as growth and transformation instrument (Taylor, Amaral & de Lourdes Machado 2007;Zaharia & Gibert 2005;Dooris, Kelley & Trainer 2004; Richards, O’Shea & 2004; Taylor & Miroiu 2002). Navigation of the planning throughout the higher education system across the country and across all the layers of the system has a catalytic effect on the Indian university system. This propagation of planning is facilitated through workshops, seminars and conferences, training programmes, policies, and consultation. Strategy formulation and implementation is regarded as the first step towards predicting a world-class university system in India. Envisaging such a large and complex system has to focus on both the broader and minor aspects of a system, the nodes that constitute the system and their inter-relationships. The proponents of this idea have to be intuitively sensible as it expects to building drive of making encompass the variety of institutions within the system. It will ultimately then be a diversified academic collage of visions of the constituent institutions. The point at which, the efforts are consistent, the collage will be meaningful and coherent; and in case less ill-conceived, the collage will be meaningless and incoherent. Therefore, we are discussing forming a collage can be one of the options for analyzing and transforming it. It also can be identified as a world-class university system for India using a simple ontology from which a large number of potential excellences can be created systematically, and converted for being applicable to a higher education institution. Some ideation at this point may not make sense automatically; and some, may not map to a current academic and vocational institution, although they are sensible. The application of such combinations of visions of the institutions in the system has already been initiated. At different levels of eight new IITs started their classes and are fully functional. New universities have also been established.

Government’s Role

The role of government is very significant for the growth and development of national industries. The role of government is the locus of any major program or policy is an obvious case for its implementation or planning for its implementation in any country. It is the government who lays the foundation for any major or infrastructural support systems required for any plan of action that is to be implemented. The underpinning for future actions is framed according to the major policies decisions by the government. Government plans focused on the priority sectors by developing infrastructure with modern facilities for hi-tech industrial parks, environment-friendly new businesses. Government in addition to this has taken a major initiative by focusing on the development and promotion of innovation and entrepreneurship by introducing business incubator or science and technology parks. State governments of each state respectively sets up these business incubators and technology parks. This investment of them is a onetime investment with a motive to transfer these centers to academic or corporate organizations to gain profit. This has been considered by many as the central solution point for solving difficult and complicated problems. These parks play the central role in solving the difficult and complex problems related to unemployment, regional economic development and new business formation (Hansson, 2007). Interconnections with industry are clearly thought out having attention paid to the fruitful outcomes that will accrue to the university. Financial rewards like patenting and licensing of academic researches transformed to commercialized products motives universities in collaborating and networking with industries. Universities rely on this process as it acts as a bridge for the gap created due to low government funding. Often universities and industries share the patents that are generated for researches sponsored by industries with the intention of using the revenue that is generated through patenting by the universities for non-market oriented activities, for example teaching in the institutions. The challenges faced by government and its agencies to plan a suitable policy for harnessing enterprise creation and growth of small firm is aided by the agents which can play an important role in removing these constraints. Government not only provides financial assistance to interested partners in industry creation but also assists them by providing them with advice and mentorship with the help of government channels (Hynes 1996).

Government plays a crucial role as a source for knowledge creation & awareness support for industry growth. Research from university-industry collaboration encourages high-tech development through state economic development programs. However, it is difficult to recognize any specific agendas for economic development by universities. It has been suggested by many that industrial-university partnerships act as direct local economies contributors. It is also believed by the legislatures that the research generated at the incubation center or tech parks would facilitate job creation resulting in filling up the state assets. Incubation centers and tech-parks facilitate commercialization of products that are created from basic research and many beliefs that due to the ability of the universities and other HEI in increasing external funds for research and partnering with industries, they contribute in economic development of the state. Though the government has concentrated on spreading the awareness related to innovation and entrepreneurship and new business set-up, still the current government programs in India concentrate mainly on the establishment of policy matters and its improvement. Extensive efforts for organizing such programs are laid upon by the government but much research has not be emphasized on such programs (innovation support programs) and on the role of their interaction with the stakeholders. Though the industry and higher educational and other academic institutions actively participates in development of nations, still much less effort has been laid on increasing their participation in such government programs. Rather, importance was focused more on incubation support programs in comparison to the innovation support program aided by the Government. In last 15 years, the infrastructural development is noticeable, due to the entrepreneurship promotional activities. Often, this whole effort of the government goes disconcerting due to the effect of political and financial supporting process on the decision of the government to implement the changes. In compared to China, where the government has dictatorial power, democratic country like India, faces longer political consensus. This makes nation like India to lag behind countries like China. In addition to this, the other source of obstacle is the barely available political will and support.

A specific case of academic entrepreneurship can be viewed from the model followed by Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur. IIT Kharagpur with government support initiated an entrepreneurship development program to support entrepreneurial mindsets and talents. The organization is known as science and Technology Entrepreneur’s Park. The Science and Technology Entrepreneurs' Park was established in the year 1986 and commenced its operation from 1989 at IIT Kharagpur under the overall guidance of National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB), DST, New Delhi Since its inception, it has provided an enriching environment for prospective entrepreneurs in order to accelerate start-up venture creation. The result of intense handholding, development of a supportive and stimulating environment for innovative hi-tech entrepreneurship has led to the spawning up of 56 companies in campus within last 5 years from an earlier average of 10 companies in the incubator at any time. The STEP provides a broad platform for innovators having more than 40 innovations in various stages of development and commercialization. Society benefits from university-industry research relationships through innovative products and technologies. Industry-sponsored university research is often developed into practical applications that benefit society. These applications include new improved medical devices, techniques, and therapies; efficient energy development; and innovative electronic technologies. Indirectly, university-industry partnerships may spawn new industries that enhance the nation competitive advantage globally.

The STEP business accelerator has built a constellation of several entrepreneurship programs to support its incubated companies, entrepreneurs and innovators. Brief information about these support programs has been provided to aid in a better understanding of the innovation ecology at IIT-Kharagpur. (STEP), IIT Kharagpur, encourages technology adaptation from the academic laboratories and research outputs for start-up formation. The academic entrepreneurship model adopted by STEP, IIT Kharagpur provides a well-functioning incubation support (dry and wet) along with a rich platform for knowledge and resource sharing, national and international networking and skill complementing. This helps the entrepreneurs all along the stages of ideation to commercialization during enterprise formation by providing space, mentor, financial and legal supports. Therefore, STEP, IIT Kharagpur utilizes the ‘academic entrepreneurship’ model to foster better entrepreneurial facilities for greater benefit of humanity. STEP, IIT Kharagpur, and Technology Business Incubation (TBI), IIT Kharagpur, at the eastern part of India tries to address the limitations faced by the entrepreneurs of this part of the country by providing cost effective and efficient incubation facilities. Besides physical incubation and mentoring facilities for approximately more than 85 start-ups, STEP/TBI also provides various funding facilities for different stages of product development. These funding schemes include innovation funding (TePP), TBI seed loan support, MSME (Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises) seed grant support, TIDE (Technology Incubation and Development of entrepreneur) loan (See Figure 2).

Figure 2. Start up incubation in Indian scenario

The Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IIT Kharagpur or IIT KGP) established in the year 1951 aimed at training scientists and engineers after India attained independence in 1947. The first of the IITs to be established, it is recognized as an Institute of National Importance by the government of India. IIT Kharagpur expands over 2,100 acres. IIT Kharagpur along with setting up its different academic departments is also actively participating in setting up and strengthening Technology Incubation Center within the institution. Rural Development Centre (RDC) located in the IIT Kharagpur campus provides much of its benefits to the local community by coordinating the National Service Scheme (NSS) programs in IIT Kharagpur and its suburbs, with the members of NSS taking part in activities such as road construction, sanitation, building educational model sand teaching. IIT Kharagpur is a strategic knowledge partner for an entrepreneur. It is a synergy of the various schools of engineering, sciences, management studies, intellectual property law, medical science and technology and information technology.

Science and Technology Entrepreneur’s Park(STEP), IIT Kharagpur was established in the year 1986 with financial aid from DST New Delhi, DST West Bengal, IDBI, IFCI, ICICI and got its approval in the year 1987 by DST. STEP, IIT Kharagpur paved its path of success by creating an entrepreurial-academic ecosystem for budding entrepreneurs. STEP- IIT Kharagpur, works in complete harmony with the other incubation programmes like Technology Incubation and Entrepreneurship Training Society (TIETS) and Technology Business Incubation (TBI) of the host institute (Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur) and acts as a conduit between IIT and the external world to facilitate technology transfer as well as to convert research out comes of entrepreneurs to commercially viable propositions. TBI functioning under Technology Incubation and Entrepreneurship Training Society (TIETS), was registered on 19/11/2004 under Government of West Bengal, India. The main objective of TBI is fostering Technological advancements and their commercial exploitation, promotion of product oriented research and development by bridging the gap between R&D and commercialization. With globalization, the collaboration of has suffered due to lack of capital at the basic stage of their startup. TBI ties education and enterprise and nurtures product/ service based companies leading them towards market leaders. TBI constituted through the integration, its uniqueness is evident from its alumni creating companies and graduating student setting up companies in India. The success of this endeavor is evident from not only the investment and post-investment valuation of the venture capitalists but also from the increasing number of entrepreneurs. TBI, IIT Kharagpur facilitates science and technology companies to nurture their ideas, innovate and grow by creating a synergy of people, processes and technology. They are intensely supported by the institutional R&D facilities, infrastructure, and other services.

Vision

STEP IIT Kharagpur’s primary objective is to promote innovation and technological advancements through a conducing environment for value creation, leading towards a better entrepreneurial India.

Mission