Chennai: India has exceptional researchers and is capable of doing world-class research, provided some conditions are enabled, said Infosys co-founder and alumnus of IIT Madras, Kris Gopalakrishnan.
Inaugurating a new premises of Center for Computational Brain Research (CCBR) at Bhupat and Jyothi Mehta School of Biosciences on IIT Madras campus here Monday, he said, “Critical mass of researchers, global collaboration, sufficient funding and publicity/branding will attract the best and brightest in India to join the research. We should put at least Rs 200 crore to Rs 300 crore each in about 10 centers for research in cutting-edge areas in India.”
The CCBR at IIT Madras is a high-level research centre dedicated to the goal of understanding the inner workings of the brain and using these basic principles to further enhance computer science, a press release said.
Speaking about the work underway at CCBR, IIT-M Director Prof Bhaskar Ramamurthi said, “The CCBR was conceived of and funded by Kris Gopalakrishnan. Its annual workshops have been going on very well, attracting top people in the field who have been interacting with IIT Madras students. We plan to build a large human brain imaging facility and we are building our own equipment for this purpose. Within five years, we will come out with some really good results and new knowledge that will be noticed and give a good fillip to our students who gain exposure to some state-of-the-art research.”
Principal Scientific Advisor, Government of India, K Vijay Raghavan, Prof Partha Mitra, Visiting Faculty Member, IIT Madras, and Prof Mahabala Distinguished Chair, CCBR, IIT Madras, along with researchers and faculty of IIT Madras participated.