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At The Hindu Deep Tech Summit 2026, a candid speech unfolded astir a acquainted yet unresolved question: wherefore does the spread betwixt academia and manufacture persist?
Organised successful collaboration with SRM Institute of Science and Technology, the sheet titled “The Symbiotic Lab: Re-engineering Academic Research for Industrial Agility” was held connected Monday. The league brought unneurotic some bequest manufacture and startups — Gowri Kailasam, Prasad Maganti, T. R. Parasuraman and Dinesh Arjun — for an insightful treatment moderated by John Xavier, tech exertion astatine The Hindu.
For T. R. Parasuraman, GD Naidu Chair Professor astatine SRMIST and erstwhile president and whole-time manager of Toyota Industries Engines India Pvt.Ltd, the contradiction is structural. “Industry looks astatine the abbreviated term, academia astatine the agelong term,” helium said, pointing to a mismatch that often leaves ideas stranded astatine the proof-of-concept stage. In a state powered by astir 6.8 crore MSMEs, this disconnect is not conscionable academic; it straight shapes India’s manufacturing ambitions.
Yet, the code was not pessimistic. Panellists agreed that the past decennary has seen a quiescent but important shift. Mr. Arjun, CEO of EV motorcycle startup Raptee, talked astir however entrepreneurship itself has evolved implicit the past decade. “Commercialisation was not adjacent portion of pupil reasoning earlier,” helium noted, adding that students contiguous are gathering products that person the imaginable to participate existent markets.
Still, friction remains. Ms. Kailasam, CEO of Rane Madras Limited- SLD & LMCD, offered a candid manufacture view: companies are often racing to lick contiguous problems but neglect to specify them clearly. “We don’t instrumentality the clip to articulate today’s problems, yet expect answers from academia,” she said. Universities, successful contrast, thin to absorption connected futuristic probe that whitethorn not construe into contiguous applications.
What is needed, respective panellists suggested, is simply a mediate ground—one built connected co-creation alternatively than transaction. Mr. Maganti, CEO astatine Titan, emphasised that probe and improvement tin nary longer beryllium optional and that industries indispensable actively place problems crossed their operations and enactment with academia to lick them.
Structural solutions were besides connected the table. Mr. Parasuraman projected a hub-and-spoke model—clusters of centres of excellence that MSMEs tin entree for investigating and innovation, supported by larger firms and the government. Others pointed to simpler fixes: informal collaborations, shared facilities and stronger speech programmes.
Speed, however, emerged arsenic a recurring concern. While academia offers depth, manufacture runs connected urgency. “If we hold 2 months for a solution, it’s already excessively late,” Ms. Kailasam said.
By the extremity of the session, 1 thought stood out: the spread is not owed to deficiency of intent, but deficiency of integration—an ecosystem inactive learning to enactment together.
