All the required clearances have been obtained and companies will start moving into the phase-I complex of the delayed IIT Madras Research Park (IITMRP) this month, said Ashok Jhunjhunwala, director and faculty-in-charge, IITMRP.
“We got the power supply just a few days ago. There will be a soft move-in immediately,” he said.
Out of the proposed three towers on the site, one will turn operational accommodating close to 32 companies — including start-ups. “Eventually, there will be 100 companies with about 10,000 researchers and innovators in the complex,” said Sandhya Shekhar, CEO, IITMRP.
Admitting that there were “tremendous delays” and the project should have been completed at least two years ago, M.S. Ananth, director of IIT-Madras, said: “This is a new venture and many of the government regulations were not clear to us. This is the first time a university-based research park has been set up by an IIT and much of the delay was procedural.”
Some of the unique features of the project are compulsory collaborative engagement between companies based at the Research Park and IIT-M, and a credit system to monitor their activities.
Companies can earn credits by sponsoring their employees to do doctoral research at IIT, allowing their employees to function as adjunct faculty, and inviting students and faculty as consultants in projects.
“We want the research park to act as a source of ideas. The credit system is to make sure companies don’t use the space to do whatever they want,” said Dr. Ananth. “Like the Grade Point Averages [GPAs] that students earn, companies will have to earn a certain number of credit points every year to stay.”
A third of the space has also been reserved for start-ups and technology incubation cells.
But repeated delays have put off a number of small and medium-sized enterprises. “We came in with the expectation of a certain kind of engagement with IIT-M. The prolonged wait has caused us a lot of inconvenience,” said the founder of a start-up company who has been reserved space for operation.
However, Dr. Ananth said important lessons had been learnt and the government had realised the importance of such facilities.
“The hope is whatever has been learnt will help and that every IIT will have its own research park soon.”
