Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras has been playing a vital role in promoting a collaborative environment between the industry and academia. With this objective in place, IIT Madras bagged a high number of industrial consultancy projects. According to the data of NIRF 2017, among the top five IITs, IIT Madras has bagged the top spot in terms of industrial consultancy projects and earnings procured from them. During the year 2015-16, IIT Madras had 383 clients and 737 projects. The institute earned Rs. 63.15 crore through these projects. Now, the number of industrial consultancy projects has increased by 26% as compared to the previous year.
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Performance of Top IITs in terms of Industrial Consultancy Projects: -
- Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay had a high number of clients during the year 2015-16. It had 438 clients and 591 projects which are comparatively less than IIT Madras. The total earnings of IIT Bombay through industrial consultancy projects were Rs. 35.14 crore.
- Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi had 305 clients and 428 projects during the year 2016-17. The total earnings of IIT Delhi through industrial consultancy projects were Rs. 39.95 crore.
Mr. Krishnan Balasubramanian, Dean of Industrial Consultancy and Sponsored Research at IIT Madras revealed that IIT Madras has been trying to reduce the physical gap between IITs and the industry. The Research Park of IIT Madras has played a significant role in maintaining the same. IIT Madras had commitments of Rs. 80 crore out of which Rs. 70 crore had already been released. Around 40 companies have their research facilities at IIT Madras Research Park.
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IIT Madras is expecting to double the number of industrial consultancy projects by 2018. It has signed a pact with Robert Bosch Engineering and Business Solutions for setting up a research centre to address the concepts and developments in the field of artificial intelligence and data sciences. Tata Steel also signed a pact with IIT Madras to set up an advanced materials research centre.