An endowment worth ₹4 crore in the memory of A.M.M. Arunachalam, who was chairman of the board of governors during 1978-81, has been created at the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras.
An auditorium bearing his name was also commissioned on Wednesday in the presence of Arunachalam’s son, M.A. Alagappan.
Mr. Alagappan, also chairman of the A.M.M. Foundation and adviser, Murugappa Group, said in order for businesses to be globally competitive, it was necessary to aspire to develop and invent in India.
“While businesses are constantly seeking to innovate in terms of technology, the academic world has the multi-disciplinary expertise that can be harnessed to accelerate the development of new technologies,” he said.
He praised the institute for facilitating and fostering links between academia and industry and for creating positive results for all stakeholders.
Finding solutions
The Industry Collaboration and Sponsored Research Centre’s approach helped find solutions to complex technical and techno-commercial challenges in a wide range of areas and with a wide range of partners, he said. The collaborations offered the faculty and students opportunity to apply and hone their knowledge to solve real-world problems, he said.
Institute director Bhaskar Ramamurthi said the Murugappa Group of companies had been early partners of the institute in several research and development projects, paving the way for industry-academia collaboration to build strong technological capabilities in the country.
