CRIKC MODEL ACCEPTED BY GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
National
Tel24 News
Vinay
Kumar
Chandigarh
Chandigarh Region Innovation and
Knowledge Cluster (CRIKC), is a conglomerate of Universities, National Research
Laboratories and Industries, for the promotion of knowledge and innovations in
and around Chandigarh region. The cluster has evolved as a registered society
(under Society Registration Act, 1860) and is now being adopted by the office
of Principal Scientific Advisor (PSA) of Govt. of India (GoI) as a prototype,
for the creation of ‘Knowledge Clusters’ on similar lines, throughout the
country. The major emphasis of ‘Knowledge Clusters’ is to promote
industry-academia interactions and sharing of instruments and other facilities
belonging to National Research Laboratories and Higher Education Institutes
(HEIs) by the public and the private sectors. The office of PSA is tasked with
advising the Prime Minister of India on matters related to Science, Technology
and Innovations (STI). PSA also chairs the Prime Ministers’ Science Technology
and Innovation Council (PM-STIAC), comprising of select NITI Aayog members and
heads of major R&D funding agencies of Government of India including
Department of Science & Technology (DST), Council for Scientific and
Industrial Research (CSIR), Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Indian Council
of Medical Research (ICMR), Indian Council of Agriculture (ICAR) and Defence
Research and Development Organization (DRDO). The office of PSA convenes a
monthly meeting of PM-STIAC, which is presided over by the Prime Minister. Recently,
in one of the PM-STIAC’s meetings, it was agreed upon to adopt CRIKC as a model
and create ‘Knowledge Clusters’ comprising of educationists, scientists and
industrialists, in various cities of the country (Pune, Kolkata, Hyderabad,
Kanpur, Lucknow Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai, Bangalore, etc.). This development was
an outcome of visit of Prof. K Vijay Raghavan, PSA to GoI, to CRIKC institutes
including Panjab University in July, 2018 to understand the CRIKC model. He was
not only appreciative of the synergism between the CRIKC institutes but also
lauded the self-sustainability of the CRIKC model. The office of PSA has set
the ball rolling, by convening meetings of concerned stakeholders from industry
and academia in Pune and Kolkata, in the month of January 2019. The Pune
meeting was held on January 7th at IISER-Pune, while the Kolkata
meeting was held on January 17th at S N Bose Centre for Basic
Sciences. Both the meetings were chaired
by Dr ArabindaMitra (Scientific Secretary, office of PSA). Prof. RupinderTewari
(Founder Co-ordinator, CRIKC and Chief-Coordinator, DST-Centre for Policy
Research at Panjab University, Chandigarh), the key speaker at both these
meetings, highlighted the genesis, activities and future roadmap of CRIKC. The
participants commended the ‘Industry-Academia’ activities and ‘International
Outreach Programme’ of CRIKC. The participants interacted with Founder and
former President (CRIKC), Prof. Arun K Grover, via Skype. The setting up of
committees for ‘Library Sharing’ and ‘Instruments Sharing’ by CRIKC institutes,
introduced by Prof. Raj Kumar, Current President, CRIKC and Vice-Chancellor,
Panjab University, Chandigarh were also appreciated during these meetings.
Prof. Raj Kumar will soon be invited to the office of PSA for charting the
future course of action of CRIKC. The second round of setting up of knowledge
clusters are intended to be held at Hyderabad, Kanpur and Lucknow.
