The Hon. Minister for Finance and Human Resources Management, Govt. of Tamil Nadu, Dr. P. T. R. Palanivel Thiaga Rajan accompanied by a key member of his team visited IITM Research Park Campus. Escorted by the senior leadership team, he took time to observe and deeply appreciate the ingenious innovation ecosystem upheld at Research Park that collectively brings together the brightest minds, leading innovators, experienced professionals, and start-ups under one roof.
He visited the Centre for Battery Engineering and Electric Vehicles (CBEEV), Healthcare Technology Innovation Centre (HTIC) & the Centre of Excellence for Energy and Telecom (CEET) which showcases the cutting-edge facilities housed within Research Park. He additionally interacted with a few select high-potential startups working towards advancing excellent innovations in the sectors of assistive devices, e-mobility, and water & sanitation.
Addressing an enthusiastic audience representative of the ecosystem of entrepreneurs and innovators at Research Park, the hon’ble minister then expressed his invaluable insights and observations of the admirable technological advancements across campus.
He acknowledged and commended the pivotal role the Research Park fulfils by establishing the right culture supported with a state-of-the-art ecosystem from where great technology and innovation originate. Subsequently, this attracts the best talent to this ecosystem and soon enough, it becomes a virtuous cycle that continually drives more innovation.
Thus, IIT Madras Research Park succeeds exceptionally in leveraging various stakeholder connect including incremental support from significant governmental bodies to enable and sustain radical technological innovation.
Dr. P.T.R. further elaborated on the government’s goal to eventually move towards the larger vision of achieving 100% renewable energy in the state. While Tamil Nadu is already leading in terms of its present efforts, the initiative taken by IIT Madras Research Park towards achieving this goal within the campus as a first step, provides further acceleration for the way forward.
A prominent observation over the years is that in most cases developmental projects and technological advancements occur with Chennai as the focus. While this is excellent, another goal for the government going ahead is to ensure that “no one is left behind”. A motto that aims to take the same ecosystem & facilities for innovation across to every part of the state in a way that emphasises collective and inclusive growth.
The important role of industry-academia collaboration in this context, thus, becomes greatly magnified. Both entities need to work together in tandem to ensure that the disparity lessens between what are the pressing needs of today and the right talented workforce graduating from academic institutions that can solve these real problems.
In light of this observation, he highly praised the technologies and innovations that have been developed and are being continuously worked upon at IIT Madras Research Park. They not only show great promise but echoes the valuation that puts India far ahead on the roadmap.
Dr. P.T.R further emphasised that these strides taken by IIT Madras Research Park fully align with the government’s vision for Tamil Nadu’s technological development and the government pledges its complete support in the realisation of this vision. The plan now would be to look at opportunities for increasing governmental connect and interactions towards meeting the larger goal of innovation such that this enormous potential is not just used for enterprises, but by the government itself as a tool to benefit the society at large.
The talk came to conclusion with a small interactive segment where the hon’ble minister addressed the queries of several startups on the government’s outlook on making startup policies more inclusive and the steps being taken to further support innovation in the state.
