CII-Mangaluru suggests measures to promote innovation in academic institutions – The Hindu BusinessLine

The Mangaluru chapter of the (Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has urged the academic sector to train students and faculty to think out of the box. In this regard, it has suggested various measures, including introduction of a course in innovation in all undergraduate programmes and to allow faculty to go through exposure trainings at major industries.

Speaking at a technical session at ‘Mangaluru Innovation Conclave’, K Prakash Rao, Chairman of the Mangaluru chapter of CII, said there is a need to set up innovation facilitation centres in places like Mangaluru where universities must ensure their students are trained to think out of the box.

Stressing the need for the creation of a ‘problems bank’, he said, universities must allow students to brainstorm every weekend using the ‘problems bank’. Such a move would help bring out brilliant solutions to solve some of the toughest problems of the city. Additionally, the universities must introduce a course in innovation for students of first-year undergraduate programmes.

The faculty should be allowed to go through internships in big corporate industries to get better exposure on the working and also to finetune the courses to get students employable and industry-ready, he said.

He said places like Mangaluru hold tremendous potential to create an innovation hub through industry-academia collaboration. But the faculty needs a great deal of exposure , he said.

Stating that the National Education Policy (NEP) prescribes mandatory internships for undergraduate and postgraduate courses, he wondered if the industries in tier-two cities are ready to take in so many students and train them.

For this, he suggested that the industry must be incentivised to provide internships by providing grants for appointing a full-time HR professional. The professional concerned should exclusively take care of students. He said that industries must be carefully selected for this exercise, and a pilot initiated.

Prakash said that innovation is not just restricted to science and technology, but today it is required across all sectors and even in managing day-to-day life.