Industry-academia, content for digital network

MUMBAI, INDIA: Industry can collaborate with academia for creation of content for the digital network which the government is building to connect universities and institutes, communications minister Kapil Sibal said Monday.

The minister also said that all the gram panchayats will be connected through a digital optic fibre network in the next two years.

"The issue of academia-industry collaborations is complex and there are no simple answers to increasing the interaction between the two," he said while addressing the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Global Higher Education Summit.

"However, one way of industry to collaborate with academia is to create content for the digital network which the government was building to connect universities and institutes. In two years time a digital optic fibre network will also connect all the gram panchayats in the country," added Sibal who also holds the human resource development portfolio.

The minister also lauded the efforts of CII in setting up a "University-Industry Congress" as a permanent mechanism for interaction between industry and academia.

CII is working with the Planning Commission and is in the process of creating the framework of the 12th Five Year Plan on increasing the share of private players in higher education.

This summit which aims to forge better linkages between industry and academia by deliberating on issues and concerns of both the sides also saw the release of a paper containing CII's recommendations to the Planning Commission on changes required in the regulatory setup to increase private investment in higher education.

The paper, which now forms part of the plan panel's working group report on private sector participation, including public private partnership (PPP) in higher education, makes a strong pitch for changes in the Foreign Currency Regulation Act (FCRA) so that greater foreign direct investments (FDI) can flow in higher education.

Wherever there is foreign direct investment (FDI), the FCRA Act comes into play. Though section 25 companies do not come under FCRA, investors are jittery since the FCRA legislation has harsh penal provisions.

To overcome this fear, CII has recommended that a clarification be made by the appropriate authority in the government that FCRA is not applicable to investments made under automatic FDI in a section 25 company against equity subscription.