A talk on the relationship between academia and industry was organised today at North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU) here.
The lecture was delivered by Vasant Pandit of Deendayal Research Institute, Chitrakoot. The speaker is a businessman and social worker, who has been working at the Deendayal Research Institute since 1978. He has been actively involved in designing and implementing interventions for rural communities around Chitrakoot since 1998.
Pandit emphasised on social work, rural development and benefits of industries in Meghalaya. In his lecture, he discussed setting up small-scale industries within the community and how teachers and researchers of NEHU can help the community in starting these from their homes.
He also spoke about the difference between the needs and wants of communities; wherein the researchers may know the needs of the villagers but the villagers would want something else and that is where academia can play a role in bridging that gap.
Pandit emphasised on the need to create a positive atmosphere between institutes of higher learning and villagers, which would help lab research get to market. He said that research is of no use if it is used only to publish papers and not in helping the masses uplift their lives.
At the end of the lecture, Prof PS Shukla, the NEHU Vice-Chancellor, thanked the speaker and emphasised that collaboration with Pandit will help the university and its fraternity to connect with the people of Meghalaya and contribute to the people of the state by means of social work.
