About the conference:
Academia and Industry are two strong pillars of the economy. A continuous and collaborative engagement between the two will help the economy grow very fast on all parameters be it GDP, Export, Employment, Quality of Goods and Services, etc while at the same time, it will benefit both Academia and Industry, immensely. Academia will be able to develop and nurture large number of need based quality man power with solutions to every problem, the Industry will be able to adopt and cater to changing requirement of market very quick and cost effectively. ,. The coming together of the two is extremely critical today than ever before. The academic world is known to delve deep into research and bring out creative ideas and models for implementation and the industry can be credited with the task of commercializing these ideas. A continuous and productive interface between industry and academia helps in meeting the huge challenges faced across all industries and convert opportunities to it’s benefit.

The success of any organization depends on the quality of entrepreneurship, which in turn depends upon nurturing quality thoughts and creative ideas. The convergence of academia and industry is expected to identify areas where research inputs will help promote industry requirements. Innovative changes are required in the education system to build a research mindset in the students. Focus on research early on, in universities will aid in creating an environment based on research and lead to an industry-ready and skilled workforce.

In certain countries, businesses reach out to the universities for innovation in products and processes and help them by funding such research.

In India, the situation is different where corporates and industries presently rely on their research. This can be mainly attributed to various factors like lack of social awareness, non-availability of funding or scholarships, research findings that are not relevant to the current environment and attitude of corporates to academic research. Educational institutions have to step up their research capabilities, recognize such opportunities from industry and build a constructive framework for collaboration. This will go a long way in making India an industrial hub both in terms of tangible products and services.

Conference Objectives:
This conference aims to identify and understand the research that has taken place on various spheres in ‘Industry-Academia Partnership’ and further probe on the same keeping in mind the relevance and established practices.

We invite Students, Ph.D scholars, academicians and researchers to present their original paper by identifying the unexplored areas and developing conceptual and empirical papers analysing the issues related to the theme of Driving Innovation & Inspiring Young Minds.

Theme:
1. Industry Academia partnership - Key to economic growth

• A skilled workforce for strong, sustainable & balanced economic growth
• The current gap between Industry and Academy
• Entrepreneurial ecosystem as a factor of economic development

2. The changing dynamics of Academia

• Education for Employment or Degree – Role of educational institutions
• Responsiveness of Academia towards Industry Requirement
• Current education system as an enabler in achieving industry academia partnership
• National Education Policy – a step towards enriching Industry Academia partnership
• Critical Role of Industry in Enriching Academic Inputs
• Resource requirements at institutions to meet industry challenges
• University as a talent engine and an entrepreneurial catalyst

3. Academia and Industry – Collaborations for research and innovation

• Exploiting Reciprocal Knowledge through Mobility between University and Industry
• Simulation of real-world experience in the classroom
• Promoting industry and academia partnership - conduciveness of current environment in India
• Industry and academia partnership – A comparative study of global practices vis-à-vis Indian scenario
• Addressing employability challenges of Rural India through industry collaboration

4. Critical Role of Enabling institutions in accelerating collaboration

• Industry Academia partnership - Role of trade bodies like FICCI and CII
• How to enable a bi-directional channel for knowledge transfer between academia and industry
• Industry Academia partnership – information technology as a key driver
• Nurturing innovative mindset

5. Industry specific collaboration and way forward

• Performance of existing Industry Academia partnership in BFSI, ITES, Pharmacy, Manufacturing and various other sectors/Closing the gap between BFSI sector and Academia
• Case study on Industry Academia partnership covering challenges and best practices
• Potential commercial and operational Models for Industry and Academia collaboration