Home Conferences IIT Madras hosts 5th Annual Gopalakrishnan-Deshpande Centre Symposium

IIT Madras hosts 5th Annual Gopalakrishnan-Deshpande Centre Symposium

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IIT Madras’ Gopalakrishnan-Deshpande Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (GDC) organized its Fifth Annual Symposium today (30th Jan 2025) on the theme of ‘Translating Research into Impact at Scale’.

The objective was to provide a key platform to discuss actionable strategies for overcoming barriers to commercialising research in India.

IIT Madras has strongly supported India’s socio-economic development through outstanding contributions to world-class education, research, technology, and innovation.

The GDC has collaborated with over 100 universities, research labs, and incubators across India to develop the entrepreneurial quotient of the country’s academic and scientific community by training over 1,700 researchers and entrepreneurs and nurturing over 450 deep-tech startups.

Delivering an address on ‘Role of Innovation & Entrepreneurship in IIT Madras’, Prof. V. Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, said, “We have been moving towards innovation and entrepreneurship in a big way. Four-five years ago, we started the concept of ‘One Patent a day’. In the last Financial Year, we filed 386 patents. In the last six years, we have had just three patents rejected. Patents in Pioneering products have come from IIT Madras. They include Agnikul’s Rocket, the world’s first with a 3D printed engine and hyperloop, a cutting-edge field in which IIT Madras is going to organize the first-ever competition in Asia. We are ensuring that these ideas are protected at least in India to start with.”

The day-long Symposium focused on successful translational research models with the participants sharing insights into the commercialisation process, and exploring how policies and industry collaborations can be improved to scale innovations in India.

Delivering a lecture on ‘Vision for GDC’, Dr. Gururaj Deshpande, Chairman, Sparta Group, said, “For a country to move forward, we need the mind of people getting excited when they see a problem. Entrepreneurship, which is fairly a new concept, has driven the world economy. Now, things are moving faster and faster. We are able to see how the world has changed tremendously in our lifetime and that change is only going to accelerate. We want people who will embrace change and take the world in the right direction.”

Delivering the Keynote Address at the Symposium, Prof. Subra Suresh, Former Director, National Science Foundation (USA), and Independent Director – Anusandhan National Research Foundation, said, “Technology has been moving faster and faster. While the telephone took 75 million years to reach the first 50 million users and the car 64 years, Mobile Phone took just 12 years, the Internet took only seven years, ‘WeChat’ one year with Threads needing just 4 days and 6 hours to reach 50 million consumers.”

Prof. Subra Suresh added, “The US has remained the most dominant innovation leader in at least the second half of the 20th Century. Some of the few factors that drove its leadership include Government funding for public education, agricultural and engineering innovation as early as in 1862, despite the country being in the middle of a Civil War at that time. This was done by President Abraham Lincoln through the Morrill Land-Grant Act, 1862. It transformed the education for the common man and elevated the quality. Nearly 2/3rd of the top 100 universities in the world now are in the US, thanks in large part to this measure. Mr. Abraham Lincoln also went on to create the National Academy of Sciences, 1863, to provide unbiased advice to the Government.”

Further, Prof. Subra Suresh said, “In the next few years, India is expected to surpass Germany and France in total GDP. For that to happen, Basic Research and Discovery have to happen in India. There is a lot of catching up to do. Economic prosperity and national security depend on innovation. The seed for innovation is fundamental research and it is best done at Universities, which have a longer horizon than industries. How to engage Industry and academia to work together to advance scientific enterprise that only benefits the country but the entire world? That is an important question. Since 1950, 268 the US Government’s National Science Foundation-supported Scientists have won the Nobel Prize.”

The Symposium witnessed distinguished thought leaders including Prof. Subra Suresh, Dr. Gururaj Deshpande, Mr. Kris Gopalakrishnan, and Prof. Ashok Jhunjhunwala, speaking on how India can scale its research-driven innovations and emerge as a global leader in technology and entrepreneurship.

It also featured a dynamic exchange between academicians and global corporate leaders and a panel discussion with young startup founders to foster a dialogue on the critical steps needed to accelerate the commercialisation of research and drive transformative impact. On the side-lines of the symposium, about 15 deep-tech startups from across India shared their innovations and visions for socio-economic impact.

Highlighting the work of GDC in his welcome address, Prof. Krishnan Balasubramanian, Institute Professor and Faculty-in-charge, GDC, IIT Madras, said, “Highlighting the work of GDC in his welcome address, Prof. Krishnan Balasubramanian, Institute Professor and Faculty-in-charge, GDC, IIT Madras, said, “Over the past 7 year, GDC has played a key role in transforming the mind set of faculty, researchers, scholars, and students across STEM institutions in India, while also enabling more than 150 startups that have gone to market after going through GDC programs.”

Other eminent speakers include Mr. Raghuttama Rao, CEO-GDC, IIT Madras, Mr. Parth Ahya, Chief of Staff, Renaissance Philanthropy Washington (D.C.), USA, Dr. Anand Deshpande, Founder, Chairman & Managing Director, Persistent Systems Limited, Dr. Ashish Lele, Director, NCL, Pune, Dr. Georg Kuegerl, GM – Technology & IP Headquarters, TDK Corporation,  Dr. Ajay Mehta, VP, Engineering Technology & Chief Engineer R&D, Shell Projects & Technology, India, Prof. Ravi Bhallamudi, Director, NIT Surathkal, Mangalore and Prof. Mohanasankar Sivaprakasam, Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT Madras.

 

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