The 5th National Summit on Institutionalizing Academia - Industry Interface on Make in India, Smart Cities, Social Impact was organized by PHD National Builders Forum on 9th - 10th December 2015 at PHD Chamber, New Delhi. Faculty members Ms. Parul Bansal (ECS), Ms. Sakshi Pahuja (ECE), Ms. Chitra Kaul (IT) and Ms. Charu Jain (EEE) of Dronacharya College of Engineering, Gurgaon attended the event.

The welcome address was given by Mr. Amit Gupta, Chairman, Education Committee, PHD Chamber and he welcomed the dignitaries and participants and briefly introduced the theme of the event. This was followed by an address by Prof. Furqan Qamar, Secretary General, Association of Indian Universities who discussed about the current scenario of employment in the country and the world as a whole. He mentioned that nobody in the world wants to remain unemployed and every citizen of a country wishes to contribute to national economy and growth and for this reason we need to create opportunities for employment. The Guest of Honour, Mr. V.P. Singh, Hon’ble Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha thanked PHD chamber for organizing the summit and he talked about the government initiatives in regards of Make in India and Smart Cities and the new education policy by government concerned with vocational education as well as higher education. He stated the concept of maximum governance with minimum government. The next address was by Dr. Amarjeet K. Malhotra, Professor and Dean, School of Management Studies, Ansal University and she briefly mentioned the needs of industries and demands in today’s scenario and how academic skills, industrial inputs, soft skills and life skills are important for an individual to meet to those demands as workforce.

The Chief Guest of the summit was Mr. Murali Manohar Joshi, Hon’ble Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha. He said that the country is focusing more on borrowing technology rather than creating technology which is reducing educated youth into "tailors" rather than "textile makers". He continued by saying that the IITs and IIMs are in a bad position as they are only contributing to transfer of capital to developed countries. We are not creating opportunities here and the students who pass out from these institutes are only contributing to management of multinational companies of other countries. Commenting on the industry-academia linkage in the country, Mr. Joshi said the industry's focus has always been on the higher education institutions while secondary as well as primary sectors have been ignored at large. He expressed hope that government, industry and academia will all come together and bridge the gap to meet the common goal of overall welfare.

The Summation remarks were given by Dr. Rubina Mittal, Co - Chairperson, Education Committee, PHD Chamber, she said that India is an integral part of world economy today and we need our students to be innovators, thinkers, writers, researchers, entrepreneurs and also become self-learners and we need to educate them to create jobs instead of seeking jobs and foster inter-disciplinary studies. Mr. Saurabh Sanyal, Secretary General, PHD Chamber gave the vote of thanks and expressed his gratitude towards the guest of honor, chief guest and other dignitaries on the dais including the sponsors of the event.

Power Panel I: Academia - Corporate Interface: Manufacturing

In this panel, the session moderator was Mr. Amit Gupta, Chairman, Education Committee, PHD Chamber. A Case Study on manufacturing was presented by Prof. K K Pande, Dean Academics, Advisor ,Vocational Skills, Teerthankar Mahaveer University, & Mr. Deepak Bisht, Director, Smart Skills. The speakers discussed about the importance of connecting industry and academia for better design, analysis and testing of any product and that skills & knowledge go hand in hand.

Guest Speakers during this panel were:

1. Mr. Pradeep Kapse, Former CEO, Eicher Motors Ltd.

2. Mr. V K Mishra, Director, Lakshmi Energy and Foods Ltd.

3. Mr. Rajive Chawla, Chairman, JaiRaj Group, Unique Mouldings & Chairman, IamSMEofIndia

4. Mr. Ashok K Srivastava, Amity University

Power Panel II: Academia - Corporate Interface: Social Impact

In this panel, the session moderator was Dr. Jatinder Singh, Sr. Secretary, PHD Chamber. A Case Study on social impact was presented by Dr. Vanita Shastri, Dean Ashoka University, & Ms. Nandini Gopinath, Senior Manager, Diversity Leader, Genpact,. The speakers discussed how the interaction of academia and industry create social impact and a case study on empowerment of women in Rajasthan was presented.

Guest Speakers during this panel were:

1. Lt. Gen Rajendra Singh, CEO, DLF Foundation

2. Mr. Vijay Chadda, CEO, Bharti Foundation

3. Dr. Radha R. Sharma, Professor, Organizational Behavior, Management Development Institute, Gurgaon

4. Dr. Belu Jain Maheswari, Professor, Dept. of History, Panjab University

Power Panel III: Academia - Corporate Interface: Smart Cities

In this panel, the session moderator was Dr. Rubina Mittal, Co-Chairperson, Education Committee, PHD Chamber. A Case Study on smart cities was presented by Dr. Bibhuananda Biswal, Prof. Cluster Innovation Centre, CIC, Delhi University. The speakers talked about the concept of smart cities and how smart cities can be invented from new cities.

Guest Speakers during this panel were:

1. Ms. Vineeta Jha, Sr. Vice President, Max Healthcare

2. Mr. Tushar Mittal, Founder Director, Studiokon Ventures Private Ltd.

3. Ms. Alison Peters, Head of Urban Planning, Ireo Management Pvt. Ltd.

4. Er. Ashok K. Srivastava, Vice President, Competency Based Education; Director, Amity School of Urban Management

5. Dr. Atul Kumar Agarwal, Professor, SMS and Proctor, Ansal University

These sessions were followed by a questionnaire. The concluding remarks were given by Dr. Rubina Mittal. She thanked all the dignitaries and the attendees and expressed her gratitude towards PHD chamber for providing a platform for such interactions.

The sessions were very informative and highlighted the importance of industry-academia interaction and the role of government in this regard, in a structured manner. The case studies and talks by all the speakers were well engaging and participants got to share the views of other important delegates through this platform.