patna a plea for strong collaboration between academia and industries was made on friday by iitkharagpur director s k som at the inaugural session of the twoday international conclave 2013 on innovations in engineering and management iciem being hosted by birla institute of technology mesra patna bitp on its campus on friday he stressed on longterm funded research projects at institutions and interdisciplinary research work saying that more attention should be given to energy resources environment and health sector iit kharagpur is starting a programme where medical education would be based on technology for the first time in india he said adding an effective longterm policy by the government over the future demands for innovation in technology on which the industry can depend is the need of the hour som said feasible and commercially viable alternative sources of energy need to be developed in health care too innovation is required in new drug discovery new drug delivery system and diagnostic equipments at a lower cost the twoday conclave has registered the participation of over 300 delegates from 119 institutions and 25 universities across the country and abroad apart from students of bitp the entire programme is a joint effort of four departments computer science engineering electronics and communication and electric engineering and management thirtysix technical sessions and five competitions will be held during the conclave and a journal of best research papers will also be published by bitp said bitp director s l gupta adding the discussions here would definitely give new ideas and we hope to host a bigger event next year delivering the inaugural address p k barhai vicechancellor bit mesra said bit plans to open an institute in sri lanka from the next academic session while on the patna campus a new course of bachelor of engineering in biotechnology would be introduced from the next session he added that one of the challenges of innovation was to reduce the cost of management education bihar public service commission bpsc chairman k c saha advocated for partnership of academia and industry with the government rural innovation was pitched for by ignou director nawal kishore who mentioned that the maximum output of organic farming came from a village in bihar four professors from abroad satyendra singh canada kunhuang huarnd taiwan lee chu keong singapore and venu govindaraju us also addressed the gathering earlier faculty member smita pallavi made a powerpoint presentation reminiscing the journey of bitp a souvenir of the conclave was also released on the occasion