Khadi kurtas may still dominate university fashion, but the mild, bespectacled absent-minded professor following esoteric ideas could soon be an endangered species. Indian scientists are scrambling out of their ivory towers in pursuit of commercial interests. And, they are encouraged by both their organisations and the Government to do so. The process is transforming the country's scientific landscape. The aim is to make Indian science-which has a total research and development budget of more than Rs 14,000 crore in 2003-directly relevant to society. Pioneered by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), the Bangalore-based Indian Institute of Science (IISC) and the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), it is a trend that is spreading even to Delhi's avowedly socialist Jawaharlal Nehru University. A Centre for Studies in Science Policy, JNU, calculation says 50 of India's 250-odd universities are active in academia-business liaisons. The interaction between academia and business can take many forms-new start-up companies by academics, consultancies, joint ventures between commercial and academic organisations, and even "blue-skies" projects that entail industry sponsorship of research in an area where the outcome is not clear.

Anshul Kumar (sitting on desk) and team Kritical Solutions GROWTH: The company launched by some IIT Delhi professors and students undertakes diverse digital projects.

There are examples aplenty. In 2001, four scientists from IISC-Vijay Chandru, Swamy Manohar, Ramesh Hariharan and V. Vijay-proved they could successfully explore new frontiers beyond the realms of pure science. With an initial contract of Rs. 1.5 crore, they launched Strand Genomics, India's first biotech company spun off from an academic institute. Today Strand Genomics has an office in San Francisco, investment of about Rs 22 crore and 100 employees. "It is not about money, it is the challenge of building a successful, sustainable company," says Chandru.

It is that spirit which inspired five graduates and five professors at the computer sciences department in IIT Delhi to launch Kritical Solutions Private Limited a year ago with an initial seed funding of Rs 10 lakh. Their projects range from security solutions to sensor networks, many of them extensions of graduate theses. One project, looking at more effective, computerised screening of automobiles, could go a long way in preventing another attack like those in Mumbai recently.

Institutional collaborations with industries are more common. Shantha Biotechniques funds research in academic centres as far apart as aiims (Delhi) and Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (Hyderabad). IISC has about 400 collaborations, its partners ranging from Cadila (pharma) to HFCL (telecom). The IIT Delhi campus hosts labs for, among others, IBM, Tata Infotech, Motorola. This is not a metro phenomenon. In rural Punjab, scientists from the Amritsar-based Guru Nanak University (gnu) provide quality control consultancy to textile and agro-based units. Among gnu's collaborators is food giant Nestle.

Virendra Chauhan ICCEB GROWTH: The Delhi-based research institute earns $100,000 a year from industry collaborations. The profits are ploughed back into research.

Many such partnerships have been triggered by government schemes. The Department of Science and Technology's TIFAC Core Mission Reach programme aims to have focused projects where academic institutes will meet the needs of industry and society, both in terms of products, as well as trained manpower. There are 17 projects so far, encompassing small and big institutes, and some of the best names in industry, like ONGC, MPSEB, Nortel Network Securities. Thanks to such a programme, in a terrorist-torn corner of the Northeast, Minati Das of Dibrugarh University has set up a world-class research facility in petroleum technology, along with ONGC and Indian Oil Corporation. The Dibrugarh University now also provides technically qualified local manpower to ONGC and IOC. CSIR, under the leadership of 'CEO' R.G. Mashelkar, has now launched what he calls "the largest post-Independence knowledge network", the Rs 250-crore, five year New Millennium Indian Technology Leadership Initiative (nmitli). It aims at bringing together industry and academia to focus on innovation in 14 niche areas, including nanotechnology, climate modelling and fuel cell power. The idea is to make India a world leader in these areas. NMITLI is already working. Tata Consultancy Services and CDC Linux will soon test launch a new bioinformatics software, Biosuite, in collaboration with some universities in the country.

Some of these alliances have re-written Indian scientific history. In Hyderabad, a contract between Shantha Biotechnique and CCMB led to India's first recombinant DNA-based vaccine, Shanvac, for Hepatitis B, transforming India's medical biotechnology industry. Midas Technologies, incubated by IIT Chennai's Tenet Group, proved that cheap rural connectivity could be married to a sound business plan. It made possible WLL, now adopted by many telecom companies. The returns are not limited to India. Software developed by the National Aeronautical Laboratory, Bangalore, determines aircraft landing frequency at British airports.

S.R. Shankapal Co-ordinator, TIFAC core GROWTH: As part of the "Mission Reach" programme launched by the Government to encourage alliance between academia and industry, they have developed Digital Image Processing techniques for medical diagnosis.

The earliest of academia-industry alliances was forged a decade ago between Nicholas Piramal and CSIR's Central Drug Research Institute on a malaria project. "At that time we were not thinking about profits, but national interest," says Swati Piramal, director, Nicholas Piramal. But today the product, a drug called ablaquine, is eyeing the global market. Most big academic institutes now have specific business development wings. IIT Delhi's Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer (FITT), set up in 1992, was the first such wing at any iit. Seen as a prototype by other universities, it provides seed money and infrastructure support to a start-up for up to a year. "Our role," explains A.R. Sengupta, director, FITT, "ranges from helping faculty with technology transfer agreements to advice on patents to even helping launch start-up companies, four so far."

CSIR's record is a classical example of how the industry-academia partnership has made India a force to reckon with in the global arena. In 2002, the World Intellectual Property Organisation received an equal number of patent applications-184-from csir and Korean giant Samsung, the highest from a single institution in a developing country. But while CSIR's total annual budget is $180 million (Rs 904 crore), Samsung's R&D budget is above $600 million.

The academia-industry interaction is nothing new. American technological prowess is built on such partnerships. But in India, says Goverdhan Mehta, director, IISC: "Earlier it was relatively low-key and informal. In the past 5-6 years we have formalised the relationship substantially." There was a context to it. The process began when a committee led by Abid Hussain concluded in the late '80s that science research in India was largely irrelevant, its quality indifferent, and morale among the scientific community low, leading to the brain drain. Following the recommendations of the Hussain Committee, CSIR opted to cut out red tape and sell their technologies in open market. Today, even the Defence Research and Development Organisation has a technology marketing wing.

Vijay Chandru (right) and colleagues Strand Genomics GROWTH: The Bangalore-based bio-informatics company has an office in San Francisco, an investment of about Rs 22 crore and more than hundred employees.

Industry has grown more globally ambitious after liberalisation. Scientific research had abundant manpower but limited resources. As Mashelkar explains, "India's total R&D budget is less than $3 billion. In the US, one company, General Motors, alone has an R&D budget of $10 billion." The marriage was a commonsense product. "There was movement from both sides," says Ashok Parthasarathy, chairman, Centre for Studies in Science Policy. Academic institutes have reaped tangible benefits. FITT, IIT Delhi's business arm, earned Rs 5 lakh from project contracts in 1993-94. In 2001-02, it earned Rs 4.8 crore, a 100-fold increase. Collectively, CSIR institutes generated Rs 249 crore from such projects in 2001-2002.

Some see this process as a brain drain antidote. But it is not always smooth sailing. The question of who owns the intellectual property rights can get sticky. Industry tends to see academia as unstructured in business approach. There is also a danger that short-term gains will hurt the core agenda: long-term academic pursuits.

However, the momentum has been unleashed. With so many opportunities for scientists, it has provided hope that science will catapult the nation from "developing" to "developed" status soon.