IIT Madras' industrial consultancy and sponsored researches cross Rs 1,000 crore

NEW DELHI: Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras generated over Rs 1,000 crore in funding and revenue in the 2021-22 financial for the first time in its history.

The revenue includes Rs 768 crore of funds from projects sanctioned by the state and central governments and Rs 313 Crore in industry consultancy. These projects were facilitated by a team at the centre for industrial consultancy and sponsored research (ICSR), IIT Madras, headed by Manu Santhanam.

The four major projects that contributed in the surge in funding were- The Rs 300.28 Crore project named ‘education through information and communication technology using direct-to-home(DTH)’ headed by K Mangala Sunder and Arun Tangirala. The ‘centre of excellence for road safety (CoERS)’ headed by Venkatesh Balasubramanian brought in Rs 99.5 crore in funds.

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The 'speech technologies in Indian languages' that was headed by Hema A Murthy was worth Rs 50.6 crore. Lastly, ‘collecting datasets and benchmarks for building Indian language technology’ led by Mitesh Khapra - Rs 47 crore.

In the previous financial years, IIT Madras' data in sponsored research and industry funding showed, 2020-21 sanctioned projects funds worth Rs 484 crore and received Rs 230 crore in funding from the industry despite the covid-19 pandemic. In 2019-20 the Institute sanctioned sponsored project funds of Rs 333 crore and received Rs 237 crore funding from industry.

In 2018-19 financial year, Rs 386 crore in sanctioned projects funds and Rs 228 crore in funding from industry. Lastly, 2017-18 saw Rs 432 crore in sanctioned projects funds and Rs 148 crore in funds from the industry.

Speaking about this increase in funding in recent years, Manu Santhanam said: “IIT Madras has clearly emerged a leader in the country in industrial consultancy and sponsored research with the large value projects mostly from the Computing and 5G sectors, which are expected to grow further. The total funding typically shows a growth rate year on year of around 5 to 8 percent, but the industry funding has seen a greater spurt in recent years. A key reason for the growth in industry-sponsored funding is the increased contribution in the form of corporate social responsibility (CSR) for research. This is expected to grow significantly in the future. Also, ICSR is planning large-scale industry outreach activities in the near future that will help these numbers further.”