Promoting University- Industry Linkages in India and Its Impact on the ‘Ethos of Science’

In the knowledge based economy universities have become the central source of knowledge and Innovation and their engagement with industries are seen as the ‘third mission’ of university or the ‘third academic revolution’. The policy makers are promoting such revolution by encouraging collaboration between university and industry through incentives to universities by granting them ownership of intellectual property arising from their research and creating supporting organizations like Science Parks, Incubator Centres and Technology Transfer Organizations. However, universities’ relationship with industry has been shaped by the historical and cultural factors of their host country and the institutions governing the university-industry relations have varied from country to country.

India has also taken several initiatives such as formulation of Science, Technology and Innovation Policy 2013, and the establishment of Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs) and the enactment of new intellectual property rights rules (IPR Act,2005,2015) in academic and public research institutes for commercialization of knowledge.However, the impact of these new initiatives on transfer of knowledge as well as on the production of knowledge has not been understood properly. On the basis of structured interviews of university researchers, technology transfer officers and IP managers paper seeks to analyze the different processes of transfer of knowledge and technology from universities to industries and how this interaction is affecting the production of knowledge in Indian academia. The study shows that despite the strong apprehensions among the academicians on the dilution of ‘ethos of science’, the importance of university-industry linkages is growing in terms of joint patenting, collaborative and sponsored research, consultancy and formation of spinoff companies and thus giving rise to the new ethos of science.