Research and Innovation Circle taking shape

Multi-stakeholder engagement mooted by TS government to have Rs.100 crore Research to Market Fund

: The Research and Innovation Circle of Hyderabad or RICH, a one of its kind multi-stakeholder engagement mooted by Telangana for encouraging innovation and commercialisation of research is set to take shape soon.

“The body is being constituted. Over the next couple of months it will be in place, with former Dean of ISB (Indian School of Business) Ajit Rangnekar as its Director General,” Industries Secretary Arvind Kumar said on M onday.

One of the components of RICH will be a Research to Market Fund with a corpus of Rs.100 crore initially. For the fund, which he expected to be created by this fiscal the government, apart from pitching in with a contribution, would seek support of various concerns, including some abroad.

The Fund would provide growth capital, risk capital and facilitate multiplier effect. Mr.Kumar, who was addressing the International Knowledge Millennium Conference here, 10th in the series, organised by the IKP Knowledge Park, said RICH was about creating an eco-system for research to market.

Proposed in the industrial policy framework of the State government, about two years, ago, it was intended to be a collaborative network of top research and academic institutions, mentors, funding agencies, companies and entrepreneurs.

Encouraging innovation

The idea is to “institutionalise the entire mechanism of innovations and taking it to the market,” he said. The overall purpose is to identify, nurture, incubate and commercialise the IP (intellectual property) from research for encouraging innovation and entrepreneurship, creating jobs and benefiting the society at large, he added.

With government as the facilitator, the first phase of RICH sought to involve all research institutions in Hyderabad. Subsequently, Government of India and intentional institutions would also be a part of RICH. Besides ISB and NALSAR, as constituent members, it would have JLab and Incubator 5.8 of GE.

The senior official, who was in the delegation of Industries and IT Minister K.T. Rama Rao to the US recently, spoke of RICH while pointing out that potential investor-companies, during the discussions, listed the regulatory regime, IP set up and tax structures in India as their key concerns.

The State government, which has identified 14 thrust sectors, would be tying up with Cranfield University of the UK for setting up an innovation lab in aerospace. Besides aerospace, the sectors include biotech, pharma and life sciences, each with potential for a lot of innovation.