IIT Madras has established a centre for technology and policy to address development problems and help technology innovators work more effectively in a given policy setting.

The centre will draw on IIT Madras faculty expertise and its own research staff. It will also enable consultation and networking with policy makers, industry, investors and various other stakeholders. It will play a role in the design, promotion and assessment of public policies impinged by technological and scientific innovations. It will also identify key technology gaps in meeting development goal in the identified areas, says a release.

The proposed centre will take an inter-disciplinary approach involving engineering, social science faculties and the incubation centres of the institute, said Bhaskar Ramamurthi, Director, IIT Madras, during the launch of the centre.

The centre will provide hitherto unavailable analyses and strategy options to the national policy making bodies by leveraging IIT Madras’ research activities in sectors like water, decentralised solar energy systems, telecom and IT, online education and human healthcare technologies, he said.

Inaugurating the centre, R Chandrashekhar, President, Nasscom, and former telecom secretary, said that in the last five years, there have been a new breed of entrepreneurs with new ideas and building value. Many of them are coming out of IITs and other leading technology institutions and have discarded the option of either studying in the best institutions abroad or work with companies at a high salary. This segment offers tremendous hope for the industry. .