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My piece at Swarajya on who actually owns the brains behind India's Automotive industry. This is blowing up, and I am learning from the responses as well! Keep 'em coming. @amargov @astrokaran

Haven’t we all wanted to fix India’s industry-academia divide? I tried via a niche EdTech startup. Also, I saw what works better in the US & Germany. Instead of more complaints, @astrokaran & I propose the fix in @SwarajyaMag: A GD Naidu Institute — a public translation hub (named after the genius who invented for a far poorer India with zero VC/govt help) + VC-funded systems integrators + export-first strategy. Labs. Money. Startups. We have the pieces. Time to become the solution 🏫🤝🏭 Please tell me what you think!

@mchellap @karanrajan @astrokaran @SwarajyaMag India already has a vast network of Colleges and industrial training institutes However 50% + stakeholders be it researchers, students, companies are donating/accepting money towards research just for "formality" "publicity" It's time we improve skills and productivity

@mrkpune @karanrajan @astrokaran @SwarajyaMag 🙏

@mchellap @karanrajan @astrokaran @SwarajyaMag Yes the article is very well written and I hope it reaches to all the stakeholders

Know about the Leiden (Aanaimangalam) copperplates retrieved by India from Netherlands after many centuries: > The first copper plate to be discovered on Cholas > Excavated by Dutch East Indies Company (VOC) during the construction of Fort Vijf Sinnen around 1700 > Brought to the Netherlands in 1712 by a pastor, whose descendants donated it to Leiden University in 1862 > Deciphered in 1886 by Pandit Natesa Sastri and Burgess > Issued by GOAT king Rajaraja the first > 21 copper plates held together by a bronze ring with the regal seal > First 5 plates are in Sanskrit, rest 16 are in Tamil > Weighs 30kg, and are numbered from plates 2-21 > Mentions the lineage of Cholas starting from Vishnu till Surya, Ikshavaku and then Manu, the king who gave justice to a bereaved cow > Mentions about Devasura Manthan with Shiva becoming Neelakanta, and the Amrita being distributed to Devas by a Chola king >Records the historic grant given by Rajaraja to ruler of Sri Vijaya (Indonesia) for constructing a Chulamanivarma Vihara in Aanaimangalam of Nagapattinam district > Boundaries of the Vihara were determined by the ceremonial circumambulation of a female elephant >Sanskrit plates were written by Kottaiyur's Ananta Narayanan of Vashishta gotra > Documents in detail the 41 officials who executed the edict, the artisans who wrote out the words and the sculptors who rendered the inscription > Poetically states that only Veda Vyasa can truly capture the fully glory of Cholas, but the author is trying his best > States "As long as the crescent adorned Shiva resides on Kailasha and Vishnu does Yoga Nithirai on Paarkadal, and the earthly lamps Sun and Moon drive darkness away, may the Chola clan protect this Earth" > In the summer of 2023, the Indian government submitted a request to Leiden University to return the Chola Plates > The Leiden/Aanaimangalam Chola Plates will now go to the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) in New Delhi

@mrkpune @karanrajan @astrokaran @SwarajyaMag Yes that's true and indicated by that pic in the article! An engine donated by some OEM sitting uselessly on a desk. Only serving as an advertisement for the company

Good point on DRDO but also debatable. Afaik most defense research originate *inside* DRDO not the TRL 1-9 structure thats now mandated in India & which we are trying to make work. Second is defense hasn't solved the private sector problems either. These are shares India problems.. Thats why while I agree its worthwhile to learn some things from DRDO it doesn't answer the call, so to speak.

@SwarajyaMag @mchellap @astrokaran That middle part and even beyond is what DRDO handles for defence. Perhaps, for the commercial space we need a public pvt partnership program for high risk programs while lower complexity ones are handled entirely by industry-academia.

A major Indian OEM donated engines to a university lab. No specs, no joint team, no embedded engineer for integration. Just hardware tossed over to the lab. That's industry-academia "collaboration" in India. Here's why it is that way. 🧵

Dhurandhar was way too kind to Pakistan.

@amargov @Akash10j And to your incredible team! It's a pleasure collaborating with Swarajya.

@Akash10j thanks, all credit to @mchellap

This is excellent stuff by Swarajya @amargov

@cvkrishnan @amargov @Firezstarter1 @karanrajan @Dibyamartanda @Rnb129 @ByRakeshSimha @ArunKrishnan_ @ManeeManjunath for your interest

"India Has Labs, Money, And Startups — Here’s Why They Struggle To Work Together" @mchellap & @astrokaran write for @SwarajyaMag — the structural diagnosis, the global models that work, and a specific proposal to fix India's R&D architecture. swarajyamag.com/technology/ind…

@udbhav00 @SwarajyaMag @astrokaran Thank you, this means a lot 🙏

@SwarajyaMag @mchellap @astrokaran These deep dives are gold!!! I have been saving all these articles for the past few months! Be it on ICE engines, EVs, and now this. Wish you all the best and more!

One of the few things all Indians seem to agree on: Industry and Academia can't seem to work together to produce innovative products. Here is a stab at a solution. Long read but worth it!

@RealistStrategy @SwarajyaMag @astrokaran True.

@SwarajyaMag @mchellap @astrokaran A lot to agree with. This is good analysis. Key, if adopted/adapted, will be to keep it meritocratic and guard it against cultural attenuation/erosion..

The fix? A public translation institute (hub) + VC-funded systems integrators (spokes) + export-first market strategy. None works without the others. Right now, all three are missing.

India followed the TRL thermometer. It built the Rs 1 lakh crore RDI fund. But what it didn't build is the institution in TRL 4–7 that turns lab research into products. So you have a thermometer and a bank, but no hospital.

Germany cracked this. Fraunhofer researchers earn 70% of their budget from industry — or lose base funding. That one rule is the whole secret. No free money or handoffs. Collaboration from day one.

Universities can buy a German oscilloscope with grant money. But they cannot pay an Indian startup to integrate 20 products into a functioning lab. "System integration" is never in the budget.

In many domains, the industry partner mandated by grant rules doesn't have the frontier knowledge either. - India's HIL testing market? Entirely foreign. - Homegrown laser companies? Zero. - MathWorks competitor? None.