Prof Rajendra Srivastava, Dean, Indian School of Business (ISB), said, “Academic collaborations, and multi-disciplinary and applied research, should focus on and be the link to India-related priorities,” while moderating the first panel session of the management vertical at the Vaishwik Bhartiya Vaigyanik (Vaibhav) summit.
The Vaibhav summit, inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is a month-long virtual summit of overseas and resident Indian researchers and academicians. ISB along with IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Shillong are the three selected ‘Champion Institutes’ for the management vertical.
The first panel included Prof Charles Dhanaraj, University of Denver; Prof Sumit Kundu, Florida International University; Prof Rakesh Basant, IIM Ahmedabad; Prof D P Goyal, IIM Shillong; Prof Farok Contractor, Rutgers University; and Prof Ramayya Krishnan, Carnegie Mellon University.
Challenges in global collaborations
ISB Dean Prof Srivastava while mentioning that there was a huge potential in global academic collaborations was also realistic when he outlined the various challenges.
Connecting resident management scientists with the NRI/Diaspora community, the implications of the New Education Policy (NEP), the need to focus on problems worth solving, acceleration of quality and impact of research, developing national soft power through academic collaborations, and fostering inter-disciplinary research, like between medicine and technology, are some of the challenges.
Future roadmap
The high-powered panel drew up an innovative roadmap for the future. These include linking collaborations to Indian priorities such as:
Trade, FDI, healthcare, and education
Creation of unique research Assets and databases
Development of Global Centres of Excellence in areas such as diabetes management and digital transformation,
Tax incentives and CSR funds for education
Joint and dual degrees and certification
Digital and online programmes
Worldwide conferences and summer programmes
Developing India as the ‘Sabbatical Capital’
“Vaibhav is an excellent initiative by the government to foster collaboration between Indian institutions and foreign universities. This summit will help create a climate for an action plan that will change the landscape of higher education for the national good,” added ISB’s Srivastava.
Discussion goals
Over the next month, the management vertical will deliberate on the following six topics:
Fostering academic collaborations
Mechanisms to increase R&D outputs from Indian institutions
Business innovation
Entrepreneurship for growth
Management of new-age (knowledge) organisations
Making India centre of practice-oriented management knowledge