While India may lack the monitory resources for research, there is a niche market for research that produces low-cost technology, said Satish Udpa, executive vice-president, Michigan State University (MSU).
In the backdrop of the launch of a mars mission by space agency ISRO at the fraction of the cost when compared to other space agencies elsewhere, Mr. Udpa said: “There is much opportunity for India in this sort of research. It is innovation that has driven some of the biggest companies in the world.”
Though the country has no shortfall of “brain power and innovation”, Swapan Bhattacharya, Director, NITK, believes the present curriculum — where focus is on theory and not research — doesn’t support innovation. “Research is relatively new to India. But this has been changing rapidly in the past five years,” he said.
