In a major initiative to provide a concerted thrust to Banking Technology in the country, the IDRBT signed a Memorandum of Understanding for Research and Academic collaboration with Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (IITK) on December 17, 2010.
Dr. K. C. Chakrabarty, Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India and Chairman, IDRBT was the Guest of Honour on the occasion. Prof. Sanjay G. Dhande, Director, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, on behalf of IITK and Shri B. Sambamurthy, Director, IDRBT, on behalf of IDRBT, signed the Memorandum.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr. K. C. Chakrabarty stressed on the need to integrate knowledge, business and technology to benefit the common person. "There is a need to exploit banking technology and take it to the people. We alone cannot do it. Institutions have to work together and leverage each others" expertise to derive the benefits of research, academics, and technology to drive critical initiatives like financial inclusion and take it to the masses. Therefore, this MoU has tremendous potential and is a great beginning for two key institutions to work together in several areas of common interest.
Prof. Sanjay G. Dhande, Director, IITK, said that there is an urgent requirement to marry the domain expertise in the banking sector with the new technologies and this MoU will provide a framework to forge a productive relationship to make this happen. "The interplay between man, machine and technology should result in innovative solutions and cost effective banking services. This path breaking relationship will focus on providing technological breakthroughs to improve productivity." He also stressed on the need to have courses in Banking as part of the school as well as IIT curriculum. This will get the younger involved and change will come in faster.
Shri B. Sambamurthy, Director, IDRBT, pointed out that this partnership would focus on creating intellectual capital that would result in better outcomes in teaching, learning, and research. The immediate areas of focus would be Financial Inclusion Technologies, Beyond Core Banking Initiatives and developing frameworks, standards and best practices that would improve banking services and benefit the common person. He has also outlined various opportunities for synergy.
Shri B. Sambamurthy, Director, IDRBT (Left) and Prof. Sanjay. G. Dhande, Director, IIT Kanpur (Right) exchanging the signed MoU
in the presence of Dr. K. C. Chakrabarty, Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India
The MoU would enable the IDRBT and IITK to jointly work towards enhancing the research and academic base in the area of Banking Technology through the following channels:
- Faculty Exchange Programme: Faculty members of both the institutions shall be encouraged to make visits to facilitate exchange of inputs between the Institutes, share information on areas of common interest.
- Adjunct Faculty: Faculty members of the Institutes, depending on need, may be invited by the other Institute to participate in projects, lectures, interaction with students, writing papers, books, course work at the host Institute. An adjunct faculty also may jointly supervise graduate and doctoral candidates.
- Joint Projects: Faculty from both the Institutes shall be encouraged to propose and execute joint projects based on funding from external agencies in India as well as abroad. Further, IDRBT may also sponsor joint research projects.
- Centre for Excellence (Information Security, Cyber Security, and Business Intelligence): The Centre would create, collect and disseminate information related to the domain. It may publish books, brochures as well portals. It may be opened based on proposals from either of the partnering institutions or jointly.
- Student Internship: In the first year of M.Tech. and third year B Tech, students of IITK may be exposed to problems in the banking technology domain by onsite internships at IDRBT for a period not exceeding eight weeks during summer vacation. Subsequently projects may be continued or carried out by the student offsite towards the thesis of his or her B.Tech. or M.Tech. project under joint supervision.
- Banking Community Projects: Faculty of both institutions may participate in banking community projects initiated by IDRBT.
- Executive Development Programmes: Faculty of both Institutes shall work jointly to offer Executive Development Programmes in Banking Technology for the benefit of banks.
Dr. K. C. Chakrabarty, Shri B. Sambamurthy and Prof. Sanjay. G. Dhande with GC Members and Members of Faculty on the occasion of signing the MoU
Shri S. Ganesh Kumar, Chief General Manager, IDRBT, provided the context for the MoU and laid down the target of the collaboration, which was to produce results that would benefit the banking community in India.