The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Delhi launched an endowment fund in 2019 with a target of clocking $1 billion by 2030 and has already raise funds to the tune of ₹265 crore. In the past year alone, it was able to generate ₹65 crore.
Disclosing this at the Osmania University Vice-Chancellor’s awards programme held on Monday, IIT-Delhi director V. Ramgopal Rao, who participated as chief guest, said there was a need to create research ecosystem and encourage faculty members to pursue research activity. He opined that India is not filing enough patents.
“I am from Kollapur in Mahabubnagar district, and studied there till class 12. Where you come from does not matter; what matters is the zeal to achieve. India is doing better in terms of research and stands third in the world with the first two places occupied by China and USA,” he said, adding that the patent filing time was brought down to one month.
He added that India has been spending only 0.6-0.7% of the GDP on higher education whereas countries like South Korea, China and the US have been spending between 2-4%.
“The entire amount spent by the Ministry of Human Resources Development on 130 universities in a year in India is equivalent to what China spends on just two universities. This is the time for India to translate knowledge into wealth,” said Mr. Ramgopal Rao. About 95% of IIT-Delhi graduates have stayed back in India in the last five years and 22 unicorns were started by the alumni.
He said the institute is also encouraging its faculty to not only file patents but also develop them into products under Faculty Innovation and Research Entrepreneurship. A grant of ₹50 lakh is being extended to the faculty members for the purpose. In addition to sabbatical leave, they can also use up about two years of unpaid leave to promote their startups. In some departments, every fifth faculty member has a product of their own.
The programme was presided over by OU Vice-Chancellor D. Ravinder. Telangana State Council of Higher Education chairman R. Limbadri and Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics director K. Thangaraj addressed the gathering. Awards were presented to those who excelled in their respective departments.
