La Trobe University to collaborate on research and development of leading-edge technologies in India

Australia’s La Trobe University is strengthening its presence in India.

The university has signed agreements with three Indian companies and institutions - global technology firm HCL, electric vehicle manufacturer Mahindra Reva in Bengaluru, and Birla Institute of Technology and Science in Pilani, Rajasthan.

The agreements focus on innovation, new product development and realisation, industry collaboration, commercialisation of intellectual property and institutional links.

La Trobe University: India Calling

The La Trobe University delegation was part of the Victoria Super Trade Mission, which was visiting India from 20 to 26 February. 2012. The mission was led by the Victorian Premier, Ted Baillieu.  More than 100 Victorian companies participated in the trade mission.

Professor John Dewar, newly appointed Vice-Chancellor and President of La Trobe University is accompanied by Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President, Professor John Rosenberg, and senior delegates from La Trobe University.

Professor Dewar says: “La Trobe University is taking a number of significant initiatives during this mission to further enhance its presence in India. We are committed to our relationship with India and look forward to building increasingly strong research and educational collaborations with Indian companies and institutions, and welcoming more Indian students to our campuses in Australia.’

Professor Dewar explained that the alliance with HCL involves collaboration on research and development of leading-edge technology for Intelligent Transport Systems. It deals with traffic and infrastructure management, security, enhanced driver safety and logistics support for transport operations. It also involves recruitment by the company of La Trobe University graduates.

Professor John Dewar, Vice Chancellor and President

Professor Dewar will also sign a higher education exchange and co-operation agreement for research and teaching with the Birla Institute of Technology and Science in Pilani, Rajasthan. The La Trobe University delegation will travel to Bengaluru to sign a MOU with Mahindra Reva for joint research and development of an advanced ‘green’ energy management system at the company’s new electric vehicle plant in Bengaluru.


Technologies for both these systems were developed by La Trobe University’s Centre for Technology Infusion in Australia. They have already been installed, respectively, in a hundred cars for a major road and rail safety traffic research project in the southern Australian State of Victoria, and in Australia’s first Zero Emission House, built last year by the government peak science research body, CSIRO and private industry.

India's invisible innovation challenge

True or false: When it comes to innovation, the developed world has a distinct advantage over emerging markets? If you believe this, you’ll be surprised to read new research from London Business School professors Nirmalya Kumar and Phanish Puranam that turns this long-held assumption on its head.

In their new book INDIA INSIDE: The Emerging Innovation Challenge to the West, Nirmalya Kumar and Phanish Puranam, who are also co-directors of the School’s Aditya Birla Centre, make clear that for certain kinds of innovation, the long-held monopoly held by the developed world is over. As a result, the authors argue, it’s now time for Western countries to follow the East’s lead—and in particular, India’s lead—in adopting different processes and developing new responses to increasing shifts in the world market.

But one thing is for sure: India’s invisible-innovation challenge will need a response from Western multinationals and policy makers alike. In India Inside, Professors Kumar and Puranam deliver a much needed wake-up call to thinkers and companies in the developed world.

According to the authors, substantial innovation is taking place in India, but in a form that is invisible to consumers around the world. This innovation takes a rich variety of forms—from novel B2B offerings and R&D services outsourcing to process improvement discoveries and fresh approaches to management.

The authors argue that despite some challenges, India has emerged as the global ‘invisible’ innovation hub. Four new concepts help demonstrate this:

• Global segmented R&D delivery model: How innovative and creative tasks are increasingly being off-shored to India
• Injection of intelligence: How over-qualified people on what were considered dead end jobs produces product innovations in India
• Sinking skill ladder: How by outsourcing the bottom end of the value chain to India, the West will be forced to offshore more strategic and creative activities in the future
• Browning of the TMT: How multinational corporations must transform composition of their global leadership teams as R&D and markets move to India and China

Kumar and Puranam believe that India’s emergence as a global innovation hub has important implications for the developed world. For Western multinationals it means internal stress around talent and the makeup of top executive teams. For Western policy-makers it means the potential loss of dominance in creative, innovative, and high-value-added work. The book provides several potential responses and recommendations for adapting to this new norm.

Through research and extensive interviews with India-based executives from companies like AstraZeneca, GE, Infosys, Intel, and Wipro, INDIA INSIDE presents a clear-eyed view of the challenges and opportunities facing multinationals seeking new sources of innovation in the future.