MIT-India Initiative

More and more MIT faculty, including many from India or of Indian extraction, conduct research related to India, take an active role in India-related affairs, or both. (See Appendix II). Growing connections are also reflected in the make-up of MIT's student body: India is among the leading countries worldwide in terms of the number of its citizens -- a total of 222 -- enrolled at MIT.

The Institute now plans a dramatic new phase in its historic relationship with India. Rather than a series of loosely associated collaborations, the leaders of what is called the MIT-India Initiative are creating a cohesive, philosophically consistent, and forward-looking enterprise that emphasizes science and technology. While not all elements of the Initiative are new, all are being shaped such as to create a synergy that works to the benefit of MIT, its Indian partners, and of course the larger society. And the critical dimension that links these elements is innovation.

Recognizing India's increasingly influential global role, and the potential benefits for MIT's faculty and students of a new partnership, Institute President Susan Hockfield directed select senior faculty to launch the MIT-India Initiative in the spring of 2007. The Initiative's leaders have since established a series of principles to guide its growth and development. Among them:

Collaboration -- The activities must be true partnerships, with both Indian and MIT representatives active in shaping them.

Benefits -- Though the activities may be broadly beneficial, all should be designed in such a way that MIT, its Indian partnering institutions, and India generally are the primary beneficiaries.

Focus -- The activities should build on the traditions of past MIT-India partnerships in that they must be based on mutual respect, strongly focused on the future, and reliant on the most up-to-date knowledge and methods possible.

Assessments -- Those who lead Initiative activities must build in means for systematically assessing the strengths and deficiencies of such activities. The elements of the Initiative reflect these vital concepts. In addition, the projects all embody the goal of seeding innovation in a way that ensures wide dissemination. Among other strategies, that means looking for ways to publicize the projects among influential audiences, especially in India. Exactly how this will be done in each case is to be determined, but the basic goal is to make sure the lessons learned are broadly accessible.

The elements of the Initiative are:

Poverty Action Lab -- The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (JPAL), based in the MIT Department of Economics, pioneered the use of controlled trials as a means of gauging the effectiveness of anti-poverty strategies. The Lab was launched four years ago, and today includes 18 faculty-level staff members. In addition to the Institute, their academic affiliations include Harvard, Yale, and Columbia universities. There are more JPAL projects in India than in any other country. Topics under study include health, education, indoor air pollution, government corruption, and the optimal use of micro-credit. Indian organizations collaborating in the Lab's work include government agencies, non-profit organizations, and leading corporations. This past July, Infosys founder Narayana Murthy, working with the Lab's leadership, established JPAL South Asia in Chennai. This semi-independent group will not only further the Lab's work in India but will also let the Lab enhance its ties to local agencies, corporations, the media, and other Indian organizations.

MIT-India Program -- The MIT-India Program, part of the MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives, arranges summer internships in Indian research, corporate, and nonprofit settings for MIT students. Among participating organizations are the ICICI Bank, Hikal Pharmaceuticals, and Dr. Reddy's Laboratories. MIT students have also worked in labs at IIT Madras, IIT Bombay, the National Centre for Biological Sciences, and the Indian Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore. The Program similarly helps MIT faculty arrange research partnerships with Indian counterparts. In addition, the MIT-India Consortium, started in 2005, collaborates with companies to stage an annual summit on business and economic issues in India, with faculty presenting their research and discussing key topics with participating Indian government and industry leaders. Planned is a continued expansion of not only the internship offering but also the Program other components, including a lecture series that features presentations by Indian executives, officials, and artists.

Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology Exchange -- The Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology Division (HST) educates students who are on a range of academic tracks, including physician and electrical engineer, in key areas of the health sciences and health technology. It also fosters research on topics like the biology of hearing, nanoscale therapeutic devices, and new technologies for heart health. Students in HST's medical engineering and medical physics program currently spend six weeks in India as part of their educations. They are based at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences or the Rockland Hospital in New Delhi — experience that allows them not only to develop relationships with Indian colleagues but also to compare how medical technologies are applied in India as opposed to the U.S. The Division is exploring a major expansion of its partnership with Indian institutions. One key proposal is for a formal relationship between the Division and the planned Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (THSTI). Planned is the creation of a THISTI development institute that would aid Indian groups in selecting faculty for the Translational Institute, due to open in 2011. The development entity would also bring THISTI faculty to the U.S. to work with HST colleagues. This exchange would be coordinated with a related program that would bring Indian physicians, scientists, and health technologists to HST to participate in ongoing research.

UrbLab -- The UrbLab, short for Urban Laboratory, is an MIT-India collaborative effort aimed at studying and responding to the challenges associated with India's rapid growth, increasing industrialization and urbanization. Most of the Institute faculty members involved are from Urban Studies and Planning Department or the MIT Center for Real Estate. Selected individual faculty in management, economics, and civil and environmental engineering are also likely to play a role, however.

The UrbLab is exploring partnerships with various Indian institutions. The goals include the development of urban planning expertise, with a special focus on areas experiencing unusually explosive growth. In the meantime, a group of MIT faculty and students have been setting the stage for what will hopefully become a series of partnerships by conducting development-related studies for the Indian community of Erode, in Tamilnadu. That study can provide a window on the types of planning enhancements that will be possible once the UrbLab is operational.

A Teaching Partnership -- MIT and IIT Kanpur have begun discussions related to developing a three-year pilot collaboration between MIT's electrical engineering and computer science faculty and their counterparts in Kanpur. The MIT group and its Indian partners specifically plan to develop a new teaching model for selected technologically oriented Indian institutions.

This model would build on MIT's proven team-teaching methods while also introducing IIT faculty to MIT pedagogical models. With Indian faculty joining their MIT counterparts as team-teachers in Cambridge, among other collaborations, the project will lead to the development of a., new teaching models and curricula for the IITs; b., institution-building for the IITs through the teaching of selected courses in India by MIT teams; and c., major changes in teaching methods at regional engineering colleges through an outreach program involving both MIT and IITK faculty.