Bhubaneswar, Sept. 16: Private institutes in Orissa will soon get the opportunity to conduct research work for industries. The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has decided to extend its research activities to educational institutes in Orissa.

“We will tie up with universities based on their strengths and USP. Very soon we will be signing MoUs with select universities in Orissa,” said the chairman, education and skill development sub-committee of the CII, Aloke Mookherjea.

In the eastern region, only universities in Bengal have been conducting research for the industries under the CII.

“Research work on different topics such as very-large-scale integration (VLSI) and adaptability in embedded systems of safety, health and environment are currently being carried out by the West Bengal University of Technology, the Bengal Engineering and Science University and the Jadavpur University,” said Mookherjea.

“Universities in Orissa will be offered to work on projects relating to safety, health and environment,” he added, while speaking at the higher education meet held here today.

Promoters of private education institutes said there was a need to bring the universities from the Societies and Trust Act to the Companies Act as has been done in Japan and China.

“The higher education sector is going through a transitional phase and there is a need for free flow of investments to higher education. There is a need to revisit the current law governing the universities,” said CII Orissa State Council chairman B.L. Bagra.

“Private institutes in Orissa have always been debarred from any research work. For some strange reason, these activities have always been handed over to government universities, IIT or NIT. It’s the age of private players and they should be given a chance to prove their mettle. Industries must come forward to help and support quality educational institutions in research activities,” said Achuta Samanta, founder, Kalinga Institute of Information Technology.

“Even sponsoring a few research scholars annually will do a lot for helping universities and industries as well,” Samanta said.

Topics such as the link between higher education and work, aligning higher education with job markets, the need for an independent accreditation system, innovation and education, were discussed during the meet.

“The programme aims to provide a common platform where institutes, industries and the government can interact and emphasise on more industry linkages to institutions,” said the state head of the CII, Suparna Nanda.