The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) hosted the 15th Global Higher Education Summit on the theme, “Education 5.0: Shaping the Future of Work in the age of disruption”. The Summit brought together leaders from government, industry, academia, and the global education community to deliberate on the emerging priorities shaping India’s transition into a knowledge-driven, innovation-led economy.
During the Summit, Dr. Balvinder Shukla, Vice Chancellor Amity University Uttar Pradesh, chaired a Session and moderated a Panel Discussion on the theme, “Improving quality of research through faculty development and industry engagement – creating a conducive ecosystem for future workforce.”
Chairing the Session, Dr. Balvinder Shukla, Vice Chancellor Amity University Uttar Pradesh, averred, “India has emerged as one of the world’s most active research-producing nations, ranking third globally, with more than 1.6 million Scopus-indexed publications between January 2020 and May 2025. This expansion reflects growing research engagement across universities and institutes. While this sounds impressive, the overall impact however remains limited. India’s H-index stood at 925 in 2024, significantly lower than the United States at 3,213. placing India 19th globally, which indicates that the influence and citation strength of Indian research remain far below global leaders. “Therefore, as we march towards the vision of Viksit Bharat@2047, R&D, innovation and futuristic workforce will remain the bedrock of our national progress. This mission will ensure that India is secure in its human capital, self-reliant in its innovation capabilities, and globally respected for its knowledge and skills. In this context, deeper engagement between academia and industry is not optional, it is foundational.”
During the Panel Discussion, the esteemed panellists Dr Anubhav Saxena, Chief R&D Officer, Pidilite Industries Ltd., Prof Robin Clark, Pro-Dean International), WMG, University of Warwick, Prof Muthupandian Ashokkumar, Deputy Pro Vice-Chancellor International (South Asia & Middle East) & Director, Melbourne Global Centre(Delhi), University of Melbourne, Australia, Prof Raja Angamuthu, Associate Dean (R&D), IIT Kanpur and Dr Sekar Viswanathan, Vice President, Vellore Institute of Technology, deliberated upon the need for improvement in the quality of research in Indian institutions vis a vis the institutions abroad, the initiatives required for faculty development, and the need for enhanced engagement between the industry and academia.
The Panelists highlighted the need for Indian institutions to focus on quality over quantity in research and the critical role that faculty development and industry engagement play in achieving this goal. They also emphasized upon collaboration, innovation, the need for government funding for research, and creating an ecosystem that fosters excellence. In addition, establishing clear focus areas and priorities for research to solve real world problems, providing freedom to faculty to pursue research, identifying and supporting top-performing researchers and institutions, were also stressed upon, by the Panelists.
Concluding the Panel Discussion, Dr. Balvinder Shukla called upon the industry and academia to work together to create a culture of research excellence in institutions, not to fall for the number game, rather leverage the expertise and resources of industry partners to drive innovation for social, national and global impact.