In an exclusive interview in The Nation newspaper dated 15 July 2007, Prof. Sudip Kumar
Rakshit, AIT Vice President for Research, shared his views on research in Asia that there
ought to be closer linkage between academic institutes, industries and public-policy
makers in the region. “Asian businesses were not research-intensive as they used to look
for short-term gains only. This meant they preferred to buy foreign technology via
licensing etc (rather than investing in research and development),” he pointed out. Prof.
Rakshit was also quoted that now things have changed and it is far more costly to buy
technology, and free-trade agreements have levelled the arena as well as increased the
(cross-border) competition, so Asians need to take a longer-term strategy.
In the interview, Prof. Rakshit added that Asians also need to do more confidence
building in Asia as far as R&D is concerned and promote more collaborative research.
Looking forward, he said, Asians also need to be more flexible and tap the potential of
leapfrogging via partnerships with other institutes and countries as we cannot possibly
do everything ourselves.
“We also need to be ready for rapid changes in the technological development. Biotech is
a good example. The so-called PCR machine was rare just 15 years ago. Now, it’s a basic
piece of equipment for the sector,” he emphasized.
In the interview, Prof. Rakshit also talked about AIT research projects as well as his
research work on enzymes and food safety.
Pls. see pdf