Industry-specific institutes: From cement to food tech

For a nation, which got into manufacturing goods by mid-19th century, India lags the other developed nations considerably in creation and development of new technologies says, Prof Nasir Tyabji, former Professorial Fellow at Jawaharlal Nehru University.  The situation is slowly changing and the primary contributor in this domain is the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR). Out of the 44 national laboratories set up by DSIR, at least 12 of them offer facilities for academic work.

The most famous ones are the Central Leather Research Institute (CLRI) and Central Institute of Plastics Engineering and Technology (CIPET). The CLRI is the nation’s premier institute which provides courses across the value chain of the leather sector from dyes to processing to finishing. The courses range from 3-month certification to four to five year PhD programmes at these institutions. Yet another good institution is CIPET. Focusing on newer biodegradable plastics technology this institution too offers courses on all aspects of the industry.

Another set of institutions within the CSIR sector, which does pioneering work are the three chemical labs, Indian Institute of Chemical Biology (IICB), Indian institute of Chemical Technology (IICT) and National Chemical Laboratory (NCL). While the fist two  have structured PhD programmes, with a formal affiliation of IICT with JNTU, the last one has been one of the best centres for Applied Chemical Engineering studies. The close proximity to University Department of Chemical Technology (UDCT ) of Mumbai University also adds to the academic ambience of NCL.

Subodh Garg Director General, National Power Training Institute, Faridabad "Faculty should be regularly sent on training abroad for updating themselves with the new developments. Organisations should allocate adequate funds to training and development activities for meeting the stipulated training requirement"

There are also specific institutions set up by different functional ministries like the National Institute of Urban Development, National Council of Cement and Building Materials, National Power Training Institute, Indian Institute of  Packaging; all focused on research as well as training. Some of them like IIP, and NTPI offer a diverse set of training programmes catering to human resource development in the domain.