Manipal Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Mangaluru chapter organised the ‘Academia-Industry Conclave 1.0’ in Manipal recently.

Representatives from industry and senior faculty members of engineering colleges from Udupi and Dakshina Kannada districts, who attended the conclave, discussed the plausible collaborations for innovative projects in the recent future. The objective of the conclave was to forge partnerships with industries for academic, research projects, start-ups, and related activities.

Industry-academia interactions

Speaking on the occasion, Lt Gen MD Venkatesh, Vice-Chancellor of Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), said a mutual engagement between the industry and academia is key to development of all the sectors of the economy.

“We at MAHE have focused on providing opportunities for our students to interact with reputed industry experts. The MIT-CII academia-industry conclave 1.0 is a step in this direction. Collaborations like these are also essential in exploring industry challenges and collectively finding the solutions,” he said.

M Venkatesh, Managing Director of Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL), said an event like this helps industry professionals stay in touch with academia. Emphasising that MRPL has a few ongoing projects with regional academic institutions, he said: “We invite students to carry out industrial training at MRPL as the importance of industry-academia interactions in the present scenario has increased more than ever.”

Fruitful ties

Gaurav Hegde, Chairman of CII Mangaluru, said that there are plenty of potential business opportunities suitable for coastal regions of Karnataka like food and fish processing, and eco-friendly plastics, but there are also certain challenges like goods transports system and employee skill upgradation.

The industry-academia collaborations can help solve these issues, he said, adding: “Through CII we aim to establish fruitful interactions between industries and academic institutes to create a win-win situation at both the ends.”

This conclave has paved way for more such fruitful collaborations , said Cdr Anil Rana, Director of MIT. He urged the local industries to connect with the institute and share their challenges so as to find feasible solutions through mutual engagement.