"At our university, we have launched an initiative, We-Chemie with the support of BASF under which we identify final year chemistry students and provide them 4 month long training. Aimed at empowering women from underprivileged backgrounds, this pioneering program is to cultivate a talent pipeline of industry-ready female graduates and postgraduates in chemistry. The first batch has witnessed 100% placement with the industry. Similarly, there is a need for the academia to focus on industry readiness of the students and ensuring that at least 20% of the faculty is from the industry,” said Prof. V. N. Rajasekharan Pillai, Vice-Chancellor of Somaiya Vidyavihar University, Mumbai while speaking at the 4th edition of NextGen Chemical and Petrochemical Summit 2024 organized by the Indian Chemical News in Mumbai on July 10-12, 2024.  

Prof Pillai laid emphasis on increased industry-academia interactions and collaborations at the inaugural session, ‘Making India a Global Manufacturing Hub: Opportunities & Challenges’.

"We need better trained human resources in seven key areas including artificial intelligence, sustainability, low emission products and processes, bio-based products, biotechnology, advanced catalysis, and electrochemistry. That is where a university or a higher education institution comes into play and so does industry-academy collaboration. There are many examples of industry's contribution to academics in this country starting from Tata Institute in Bangalore which is nowadays called Indian Institute of Science. Again, the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Birla Institute of Technology and Sciences and latest example is Reliance Industries starting the Jio Institute. There are many institutes spearheading research in biotechnology, physics, artificial intelligence and data in Bombay, Bangalore and several other places. The several industries are coming forward to establish universities. Out of over 1,000 universities, 50% are private universities and 35% of these private universities are owned and supported by the private Industries. It is definitely a contribution from the industry for academics,” Prof Pillai elaborated further.

“I am also a member of the committee created by the government for the new scheme known as National Anusandan Research Foundation (NARF). The Union Finance Minister has allocated Rs. 10,000 crore and proposed a collaboration among government institutions, R&D institutions and then private companies as a three-party collaboration for which the procedure has been established. There are also the Research Triangle parks that have been established in this country with private, government and R&D institution participation. There are 10 more in the process with certain set of industries joining together with a set of institutions. As a university, we provide capabilities for specific areas in chemical related areas as we have a large number of students studying chemistry, chemical engineering and other branches of engineering. We have started industry academy joint programs and one of the programs in polymer science and technology.”

Sharing more on the role of his institution and its programs, "We are also trying to provide capabilities to students, maybe making them aware of the industry fundamentals that are necessary. For example, understanding the global petrochemical industry, introduction to petrochemicals, understanding petrochemical feedstocks, ethylene economics and of course exploring the value chain and industry fundamentals. These things can be provided effectively by collaboration with Industries and as an academic institution we also collaborate with some of the industries. For example, we have collaborated with the Indian polyurethane industry and we have a joint program on training in the polyurethane technology started and supported by industry. Then we have started a very significant program for enhancing the women's presence in the industry by identifying final year graduate students in chemistry, chemical engineering and agricultural chemistry. Apart from the program supported by BASF, we have five more industries coming into our university to seek collaboration with chemistry and polymer science, biotechnology and chemical engineering departments.”

Prof Pillai added: "As of now, we are an 80 year old institution that has converted itself into university 5 years years back as we wanted to join the higher education system transformation happening in the country, Now we have four year degree program like any other foreign universities and out of this four years, one full year has to be spent by students in Industries. For that full credits will be given, maybe 10 to 20% of that four years degree program or maybe even 5% if you target them to bring into the industry. Similarly, we must have Professors of Practice which means up to 20% of the faculty in universities and teaching institutions can be from the industry. We identify top people from the industry to head our management institutions, research institutes and teaching institutions. Post covid, a lot of things have happened through digitalization and therefore it is very important to think together and see what we can do as the individual Industries in very specific areas including sustainability."

Emphasizing the role of talented workforce in the growth of the economy, Prof Pillai said: "I sincerely believe that the human resources which are necessary can be developed in this country itself. If we are going abroad to recruit faculty, we see that 70% of the students are from premier institutions in India. In the first year, they pay big fees, second year onwards, they do not pay any fees because they get scholarships and they are already ready to come. If you just look at the trained human resources from this country going abroad and working in maybe 30-40 years of age group, you can see a large number of people working in the industries all over the world. We need to identify those talented Indian human resources working abroad who want to come back and contribute to India's growth story. To strengthen our system, we have to just look at all these possibilities.”