Cost effective research, ICICI Knowledge Park shows the way

By P. Vikram Reddy

HYDERABAD, FEB. 3. Are you an individual with a bright idea but no facilities to develop even a prototype? Or perhaps a commercial organisation lacking infrastructure suitable for research? On the extreme side you could even be a multinational with abundant resources at command, but do not want to invest heavily into research infrastructure.

Don't worry. Just step into the upcoming ICICI Knowledge Park near Hyderabad with nothing but your ideas and a cheque book and you can conduct value added intensive research to your heart's content, in an environment that promises to be on a par with international standards. And it won't pinch your pocket too much. For, estimates put the cost of research in India at one fifth of that in countries such as the U.S.

But your work would have to be in areas such as biotechnology, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, new materials, and IT and telecom, the latter would have to relate more to R&D rather than software development.

Coming up on a 200 acre site at Turkapally, 40 km from Hyderabad, the ICICI Knowledge Park is trying out, for the first time, the concept of developing a ``Knowledge Network that would enable collaboration between research and industry''.

Mooted by ICICI Chairman, Mr. N. Vaghul (who is also now chairman of ICICI Knowledge Park), the proposal received full support of the Andhra Pradesh Government which allotted 200 acres on a long lease. The Government continues to give `regulatory' support, and the Principal Secretary, Industries, Mrs. Sheela Bhide, is on the board of ICICI Knowledge Park, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of ICICI.

To operate on the principles of a `non-profit' organisation, the project envisages development of 10 blocks of laboratories in five phases. Each of the blocks will in turn have 10 laboratory units (in all 100). These ready-to-use modular laboratories with a plug and play environment will have facilities of international standards like enclosures for cupboards and safety showers, air- conditioning, effluent piping and compressed air and gas lines. Infrastructure support includes uninterrupted power supply, fibre optic network for high speed data transfer, and secondary effluent treatment plant with refuse disposal.

The first phase of the park consisting of about 35,000 sq ft built up laboratory space (one laboratory block with 10 labs) is ready for occupation. The company has projected an investment of about Rs. 31 crores by March 2002, by which time it hopes to take up the second phase.

The distinction of occupying the first laboratory in the Knowledge Park goes to Medicorp Technologies of the Shriram group (in June). And according to sources, while the company is talking to 18-20 companies to take space in the Park (on lease), three are expected to do so by April. These could possibly include Pulsar Electo Optics, Krebs Biotech and Glocchem Industries.

Also the ICICI Venture Funds Management Company is there to consider venture capital funding for any of the companies taking up research in the knowledge park. This is however not a fund exclusively for this park.

The Massachussets Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Labs team also visited the park in January. The MIT Media Labs is a project taken up by the MIT, Government of India, and industry for R&D in health and rural development. With a number of reputed rural development institutes in Hyderabad, the park offers an ideal location, but a final decision is awaited. The team also had interaction with ICICI officials.

The park has taken up a unique project called ``Knowledge Network'', which, in phases, will have components such as database of networked institutions, online access to libraries and databases, facilities for negotiation and project execution, and information on the park tenants.

To begin with, work has started on a ``Virtual Library'' project, which will be completed in three years. This will be a database of scientists, experts and key research institutions in India. A search engine will enable seamless access into member institutions. If a tenant of the park has a problem, Knowledge Network can help find a solution.

For a start, the park is getting ready to sign an MoU this month with the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICI), Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), and the Hyderabad Central University. In the pipeline is the National Institute of Nutrition (NIN). Similar MoUs are expected to be signed in future with 16 more R&D institutions (including IITs) which seem to have agreed, in principle, to participate in the project.

Besides scientist entrepreneurs and start-up companies, the target groups for the park are commercial R&D units, established units without own facilities, MNCs looking for cost effective research, and NRIs wanting to come bank home to do research.

One of the regulatory supports is the customs department's notice recently, under which any goods marked for ICICI Knowledge Park would be released immediately at the Hyderabad airport, essentially aimed at speeding up things.

And all this at what cost? Rentals start at Rs. 20 per sq ft per month and end at Rs. 35 per sft in a step up model for four years.

Though several States have technology parks and other industry specific parks, research and development in a park environment is a new concept in India. The Union Government also seems to have been convinced by the concept and recently set up a `multi- disciplinary committee' to look into the possibility of setting up such parks elsewhere in the country. Officials of the State Government and the ICICI made a presentation to the committee during its visit to Hyderabad recently. Already several States such as Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Kerala are said to have evinced interest in promoting the concept of a `knowledge park'.

India has always been a preferred source for the knowledge worker. And if such concepts pick up, it could well be on the way to becoming a preferred destination to conduct `business driven research' or `collaboration between research and industry' where the finest scientific minds will come together to drive business.

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