1 Government mediated program on intensifying industry- academia linkages for human resource development; Experiences of an innovative model from TIFAC Jancy Ayyaswamy, Neeraj Saxena & Antaryami Parida Technology Information, Forecasting & Assessment Council (TIFAC) New Delhi Abstract The importance of academia- industry linkages for development of an economy is well recognized. With a view to make the higher technical education relevant, by forging and catalyzing functional linkages between industry and academia, an innovative model was conceived by TIFAC in the shape of Center of Relevance & Excellence (CORE). These TIFAC-COREs were to be established in academic institutions across the country- with financial stakes of industry, academia and government and also ensuring their participation. The paper describes experiences from two TIFAC-COREs established in SASTRA University & Amrita University, both located in rural India. The achievements are redolent of intensive industry- academia interaction, bringing out the catalytic role played by TIFAC. 1. Introduction The importance of academia- industry linkages for development of an economy today is well recognized. The developed economies appear to be characterized by strong linkages between industry and academia, the under-developed by absence of it and developing ones by ‘make and break’ of it. Realizing the importance of this dual helix, several initiatives have been taken world over to promote linkages between industry and academia. Some of the prominent ones catering to diverse needs of the two include Calit2 (California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology) in USA, Magnet & Magneton program in Israel, Fraunhoffer Society in Germany, European Framework Programs in EU, Industry Research Centers & Hsinchu Science Park in Taiwan etc. There must be scores of other such schemes all across, generally focusing on technology transfer, research and development and entrepreneurship. In India too, several initiatives pivoted around academia and industry have been introduced; like NMITLI (New Millennium Indian Technology Leadership Initiative) & SBIRI (Small Business Innovation Research Initiative) basically for Technology Development/Pre-Commercial R&D; HGT (Home Grown Technology) & PATSER (Programme aimed at Technological Self Reliance) aimed at Technology Transfer And Upscaling (Early Stage); and Technology incubation in academic institutions (STEPs, TBIs) and TDB (Technology Development Board) with an eye on Technology Commercialization. However, none of the schemes try to comprehensively address the issue of human resource development in a sustainable manner leaving a scope for a concerted effort in this direction. 2. Industry-Academia Interaction Most of the schemes/ program (mentioned in previous section or similar to them) see industry- academia getting together for collaborative research, technology transfer, technology commercialization etc. When seen in a wider sense, industry- academia interaction actually happens in various other manners also. Capturing them on the basis of their happening on different time- scales, authors propose a spectrum of industry- academia interaction (Figure 1) Various forms of interactions in IA can be considered to be continuous but have been shown as disjointed bands to show the overlaps. This spectrum has in it, student placement in industry at