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Informist, Thursday, Jun. 11, 2026

--Biocon: Innovation engine has to fire, India should invest in R&D
--CONTEXT: Comments by  Biocon Chairperson Kiran Mazumdar Shaw at event
--Biocon: See huge demand for industry-ready education programmes
--Biocon: See big gap in India between education, employability
--Bajaj Auto: It is not that Indian cos are not investing enough in R&D
--CONTEXT: Comments by Bajaj Auto Managing Director Rajiv Bajaj at an event

PUNE – All stakeholders in India have to work on fixing the big gap between the populace's education and their employability, Biocon Ltd.'s Chairperson and founder Kiran Mazumdar Shaw said at an event hosted by Bajaj Auto Foundation here on Thursday. "Whether it's coming up with a new education policy, which I think the government is trying to evolve and develop, or whether it is about industries playing their role to bridge that gap...," Shaw said as she pointed to a robust interest in industry-ready education programmes. 

Bajaj Auto Foundation is Bajaj Auto Ltd.'s corporate social responsibility initiative. Shaw was the chief guest at the event, at which the company committed INR 4 billion over the next decade through the Rupa Rahul Bajaj Scholarship for Women in Engineering.

Shaw said her pharmaceutical company is willing to provide internships to students, which would in part contribute towards industry-ready employment. "Every time a new batch is going to be completed (at Biocon Academy), we get a huge number of requests from all the biotech companies saying, when is the next batch coming? So I think there's a huge demand for industry-ready courses," she said. "Where we lack is in hands-on experience, and that's why industrial internships are so vital," she added.

There is a need for Indian companies to increase their expenditure towards research and development, Shaw said. "There is a clear recognition that if India has to have non-linear growth that it will not happen without research and innovation," she said. "The innovation engine has to fire up. We need to invest in research, and that's what the government is doing now through all these various research schemes," she added. Young entrepreneurs in India are also facing difficulties in accessing capital, which also needs to be fixed, Shaw said. 

On being asked if Indian corporates were not investing enough in research and development, Bajaj Auto Ltd.'s Managing Director Rajiv Bajaj said it was not so. At Bajaj Auto, he said, the company would not have reached where it is today without spending enough on innovation.  End

Reported by Anand JC

Edited by Avishek Dutta

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