M.S. Ananth, Director, Indian institute of technology, Madras

Innovation is both an idea factory and a magic garden. "Managing it requires contradictory approaches: one, hands-on-design, oil, power up and manage the machine, and the other, hands-off-create conditions under which it can flourish, stand back and let the magic occur, then harvest the magic garden," says T. Stewart in The Wealth of Knowledge.

The idea factory approach is more appropriate for innovation in industry where the focus is on short-term gains amidst global competition. The magic garden approach is more appropriate for innovation in an academic environment, although many successful market innovations also trace their origins to the magic garden.

"In the field of observation," Louis Pasteur said, "chance favours only the prepared mind." Indeed, the purpose of higher education is to prepare minds to utilise the chances that come their way. The brand equity of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) has been built over decades, but has never been so effectively articulated as in the last few years. With CBS' 60 Minutes paying unprecedented homage to the IIT system, the IIT name has become a password for free entry to a world of economic opportunities. The IITs, it seems, AVE prepared their students' minds rather well. Unfortunately, chances appear to favour our graduates more often outside India than here.

Science and technology related activity in the IITs can be described under four broad categories: teaching, industrial consultancy, sponsored research and fundamental research. Fundamental research is the most demanding of these. It deals with abstract ideas, and is concerned more with understanding than with doing. It is a non-linear process, and is often about going up blind alleys to find out if they're really blind. It requires an obsessive interest in solving a problem or overcoming a conceptual difficulty, a knowledge of what other researchers have done before ("standing on the shoulders of giants", in Sir Isaac Newton's words), hard work and resilience. Application is not the immediate goal of fundamental research-it is, rather, an investment for the future. Industrial consultancy relates to design and trouble-shooting, involves the innovative application of knowledge and is a fairly linear process. Sponsored research is somewhere in-between.

Over the past 12 years, the systems development lab in the computer science department has been grappling with the diversity of Indian languages for the development of software tools. It became clear that working with text at the level of an akshara (syllable) will permit text-to-speech output in all languages and thus allow blind persons to operate computers using their mother-tongue. The lab's achievements have recently won recognition from the government.

Sometimes, learning from failures is the only way to solve problems like scaling-up-a serious engineering problem. This is how the metal-forming laboratory developed a successful technology for superplastic forming of the titanium alloy, Ti-6Al-4V, for defence applications. Direct exposure to communication problems led to the development of a net-based video-conferencing software. A rural ATM, costing less than 5 per cent of a conventional one but with advanced features such as fingerprint detection and smart cards, is ready for deployment in 2004.

Like all good academic institutions, the IITs are full of the germs of good ideas. Research ideas arise from persistent efforts, frequent discussions and chance meetings of minds. Students serve as a sounding board, and can often bring a refreshingly original view to a long-standing problem. The very lack of knowledge about previous work in the field is sometimes an asset.

Some work on eco-friendly refrigerant mixtures was triggered by a question that an M.Tech student asked in class. It led to the development of a world-class vapour compression cryogenic refrigerator that can reach temperatures as low as -200 °c in a single stage. These refrigerants can replace liquid nitrogen in a number of applications-in fire-fighting, military and in medical applications.

During the annual technical fest Shaastra, IIT-Madras students built the longest and tallest manila rope-stayed paper foot-bridge, spanning 11 metres, with an elevation of 2.5 metres above the ground at its highest point. Much brainstorming went into making it.

In sponsored research and industrial consultancy, good ideas often arise from a meeting of unlike minds: the experience and practical focus of the engineer on the one hand, and the erudition of the faculty consultant on the other. One of the proven stimuli of innovation is the meeting of unlike minds. It throws up possible applications of fundamental research.

The bio-medical engineering division has been trying to find ways to identify the risk of foot-sole ulcers at an early stage of diabetes. Interaction with doctors registered for a PG degree has led them to create an ingenious method using foot pressure-measurements in a pedobarograph.

A faculty member once made a chance visit to the National Institute of Ocean Technology. His informal discussions with the scientists there led to an creating an ingenious method of harvesting ocean wave energy using a fixed-vane turbine in an oscillatory water column.

In the innovation process, intellectual investments come first, followed by physical and financial investments. This raises the issue of intellectual talent. Intellectuals look for meaningful research opportunities at organisations of repute. What can attract and retain them?

• Informal atmosphere, horizontal organisations with minimal bureaucracy
• Unrestricted working hours at well-equipped laboratories
• A critical mass of vibrant minds to make the collection's growth auto-catalytic
• Associated technology parks for the university's interaction with enterprise.
• Emphasis on high-tech education that lures high-tech companies
• Open-minded organisations
• Organisations that value creativity and foster interdisciplinary collaborations
• Campus exposure to some of the world's truly creative scientists
• A diverse campus
• An urban location, campus accommodation, educational opportunities for children
• A hobby workshop to foster acquisition of skills and nurture creativity
• Lively on-campus coffee-and-music bars

To promote entrepreneurial innovation, IIT-Madras will soon set up an R&D Park similar to those associated with Stanford and Harvard. The Park will provide infrastructure, invite world class companies to set up R&D facilities, promote and nurture new ventures, encourage interaction between the Institute and businesses and urge technology-led development for the community at large. The Park will also help set up hi-tech companies such as those incubated at IIT-Madras. To complement the IIT's faculty resources, the Park will house a large number of professional experts. Park researchers would be expected to register for ms and Ph.D programmes at the Institute as well.

In developed countries, the academia-industry link has resulted in cross-fertilisation of ideas, and this has yielded benefits for both. India can do it too. Innovation is not a linear "scientific push" or "market pull" process, but a non-linear "system integration and global networking" process. It will take an unprecedented level of teamwork between academia, industry and the government to convert innovative ideas into commercially and socially successful projects. We at the IITs already have most of the elements of the magic garden. We simply have to work more creatively to reap a wonderful harvest.