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Get MoreDr.Dinesh Agrawal – Driving Innovation & IPR in Indian Higher Education
Introduction
Dr.Dinesh Agrawal, Director of Innovation, Incubation, and Entrepreneurship at Krishna Vishwavidyalaya University. With over 40 years of experience in teaching, faculty development, and research, he has mentored numerous PhD students and is also an author. His journey from studying
Today, we have with us Dr.Dinesh Agrawal, Director of Innovation, Incubation, and Entrepreneurship at Krishna Vishwavidyalaya University. With over 40 years of experience in teaching, faculty development, and research, he has mentored numerous PhD students and is also an author. His journey from studying geology to leading innovation at a medical university is filled with inspiring lessons for faculty members, students, and aspiring entrepreneurs.
geology to leading innovation at a medical university is filled with inspiring lessons for faculty members, students, and aspiring entrepreneurs.
Dr.Dinesh Agrawal begins by saying, “No, my career path was never straightforward. I was an average student, usually securing third position—not third division, but third rank in my academic journey. During our time, career choices were mostly confined to engineering and medical fields, but I had a different mindset, and I opted for geology.”
After completing his BTech and MTech in Geology and later pursuing a PhD in Remote Sensing, he found his first job as a mineralogist at a company engaged in gold exploration. This company had a government lease for 30 years on the Wanga River, aiming to extract gold from its banks. “Gold is a precious and fascinating metal, and I was fortunate that my final year thesis was on the Kolar Gold Fields, which worked in my favor when I applied for the job,” he says.
His job required extensive exploration in remote areas. “I spent three months studying the site, and despite extensive investment, we could barely extract one or two grams of gold. That’s when I realized that the project was not economically viable,” he explains. His report to the management led to a significant business decision, eventually saving the company from huge financial losses.
However, Dr.Dinesh Agrawal had bigger aspirations. While working there, he saw a newspaper advertisement announcing the privatization of engineering education in Maharashtra, opening up opportunities for professors in newly established engineering colleges. He decided to apply.
His journey to his interview was nothing short of an adventure. “I boarded the wrong train, which was headed in a completely different direction,” he recalls. After an unexpected detour and assistance from a kind railway guard, he managed to reach the interview location just in time. “I walked straight in, placed my bag down, and heard my name being called for the interview. I had no time to settle or even freshen up!” he says with a laugh.
Despite this chaotic beginning, his demonstration lecture impressed the interviewers, and he was offered a position as an Assistant Professor. Over the years, he climbed the academic ladder, holding positions such as Dean of Engineering, Board of Studies Member, Director BCUD (Board of College and University Development), and member of multiple university governing bodies.
This is a very appropriate question,” he begins. “When I first joined the university, I must admit—I was completely blank. The first few days, I had no clarity about my role. But soon, I decided to take the initiative and start building the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) ecosystem, with help from people like you, and by also teaching myself more about IP.”
Dr.Dinesh Agrawal shares that the first thing he did was create awareness about the importance of IPR. He proposed to the university management that teachers should be incentivized for generating IP. He recollects, “I told them—whatever IPR is generated by any teacher, we must reward them.” And with the Chairman’s support, this proposal was presented to the Governing Body and approved.
He established the following incentives in 2017:
₹5,000 cash reward for a certified copyright
₹10,000 for a granted patent
₹5,000 for a published design patent for a medical device
₹20,000 for an international patent
According to him, this was the first step in sparking interest among faculty. But it wasn’t easy. “In hospitals,” he says, “the primary job of doctors is to run OPDs, and in colleges, they must teach. Research and innovation become a third priority for them.”
Despite this challenge, Dr.Dinesh Agrawal didn’t lose hope. “I called a meeting in the auditorium,” he recalls, “and declared these incentives publicly. The entire hall—full of doctors, from professors to assistant professors—welcomed it with loud claps.”
To ensure deeper engagement, he offered mentorship through workshops, shared knowledge directly with faculty, and most importantly, created a welcoming culture. “I always tell people—if someone comes to your chamber and you welcome them, they’ll come back. If you ignore them, they’ll never return.”
He also shares that he categorized faculty into two types. One group consisted of local and senior faculty—some of whom, despite being capable, had become complacent. “They had passed their time,” he says, “so I didn’t count on them much.”
Instead, he handpicked younger faculty below the age of 45, focusing on those with fresh ideas and energy. “I’m proud to say,” Dr.Dinesh Agrawal says, “that today I have a committed team of 50 teachers from across all six constituent colleges—medical, dental, nursing, pharmacy, physiotherapy, super-speciality and allied sciences—who are actively involved in innovation.”
He credits the ecosystem-building process to training sessions, follow-ups after workshops, and building a sense of community among innovators. “The first time a copyright was awarded, and someone got ₹5,000—everyone across the institution was talking about it!” That one event, he believes, ignited a chain reaction.
To further support this momentum, he initiated a unique concept called the Innovation Cafeteria or Innovation Club, where innovators and researchers from different disciplines gather after 5 PM over a cup of coffee. “We sit together—discuss ideas, share problems, and motivate each other,” he says. Dr.Dinesh Agrawal and his team are regular attendees, creating an open and non-hierarchical culture.
This informal but focused platform created what Dr.Dinesh Agrawal calls an unstoppable train. “Now, there is no limit,” he says proudly. “We’ve already crossed 1,000 IPRs. Maybe one day, the university will reach one lakh IP filings—I may or may not be there to see it, but the ecosystem has been created.”
He then shares a notable success story from this ecosystem—a mechanical engineering student who noticed the physical burden carried by school children in rural areas. “They carry 8 to 10 kg of school bags on their backs,” Dr.Dinesh Agrawal explains. “So the student developed an ergonomic school bag with an acrylic plate shaped like a heart, placed between the two layers of the bag. The plate distributes the weight evenly across the back and shoulders, reducing stress on any single point.”
This simple yet brilliant innovation was transferred to a company called Yah Club, which supplies school bags to government schools. The technology transfer was done for ₹10.5 lakh, although, as Dr.Dinesh Agrawal explains, the amount was deliberately kept low. “Our Chairman said—don’t worry about money. The children are benefiting. That’s more important.”
But the university also had to justify its resource usage to accreditation bodies. “When NAAC visited, they said our Innovation Gallery was excellent, but they asked—what’s the return on investment?” Dr.Dinesh Agrawal promised that they would begin generating revenue through technology transfer and feeding startups into the incubation center. Now, he says, “we’re comfortable. The cycle has begun.”
In closing this answer, Dr.Dinesh Agrawal reflects, “It’s all about ideation. Ideas can come anytime, anywhere. All you need is a platform to nurture them.”
Dr.Dinesh Agrawal acknowledges this as a very relevant and timely question. He begins by explaining that the entire higher education landscape in India is governed by the University Grants Commission (UGC). Under the UGC, there are specific regulatory councils for different disciplines—such as the Medical Council of India (now the National Medical Commission) for medical education, the Pharmacy Council of India, the Bar Council of India for law, the Council of Architecture, and the AICTE for technical education. While these bodies manage their respective fields, they all operate under the guidelines and frameworks provided by the UGC.
Dr.Dinesh Agrawal emphasizes that even though different fields are regulated by different bodies, the evaluation framework—particularly for faculty salaries, quality measures, and performance—is the same across disciplines. Teachers in arts, engineering, medical, or any other stream are evaluated on similar parameters, and with the 7th Pay Commission in place (and expectations for the 8th Pay Commission), the importance of performance-based metrics like IPR has grown significantly.
He then elaborates on the growing awareness among parents and students about institutional rankings. Whether in Nagpur, Pune, or other cities, they look for NAAC grades and NIRF ranks before selecting a college. He distinguishes between rating, grading, and ranking:
Grading is based on internal evaluation parameters, like marks and institutional performance across different metrics.
Ranking is comparative, evaluating institutions against each other.
NAAC is a five-year accreditation cycle, while NIRF rankings are released annually and are becoming more influential every year.
Dr.Dinesh Agrawal shares his personal experience. When he first joined Krishna Vishwavidyalaya in 2017, most faculty and administrators didn’t even know what NIRF was. He called for a meeting to introduce the concept and emphasize its importance. Within a year, the university applied for NIRF and was ranked 73rd in India. In the following year, they moved to the 91st position, and in subsequent years, they’ve consistently ranked in the 100–150 band.
He explains that IPR and research play a major role in these evaluations. Institutions must submit their patents and publications, but these are also verified through third-party sources like:
WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) – for patents
INFLIBNET – for publications, H-index, citations
“You may claim to have filed 15 patents,” Dr.Dinesh Agrawal says, “but NIRF will only consider those verified and published on WIPO’s database.” He adds that WIPO publishes granted patents usually after 3 months, and these are automatically picked up by NIRF. Likewise, INFLIBNET tracks publication metrics, ensuring transparency and accuracy in ranking systems.
Beyond hard data, perception also plays a significant role in NIRF rankings. This includes feedback from:
Alumni
Employers
Academic peers
General public
Dr.Dinesh Agrawal explains that sometimes, perception surveys are sent to these groups without prior notice or consent. Often, these emails go unnoticed, landing in spam folders, but they still influence the final score. Each of these five groups contributes 20% of the total score, making perception 100 marks out of 1,000.
He gives an example: If a former student is working at a reputed hospital like Sahyadri or Ruby, and NIRF sends them a feedback email, their response could significantly impact the university’s perception score.
Dr.Dinesh Agrawal then reflects on a larger trend—the future of government-aided colleges in India. He believes that due to financial constraints and accountability issues, government support for such institutions may gradually phase out. Instead, the government is focusing on funding research-centric institutions to foster excellence and make private institutions competitive with IIMs and IITs.
He cites a comparison between a professor at MIT Pune, who earns a slightly lower salary but has higher accountability, and one at a government-aided college who may have less responsibility and freedom. The goal, according to him, is to drive quality through responsibility and innovation.
He also sheds light on a core challenge in India’s research ecosystem—the lack of vertical, interdisciplinary collaboration. He says that most Indian research is horizontally spread, where PhD guides mentor students in their own narrow domain, limiting cross-disciplinary exploration. “You have your PhD topic, I have mine, and we both stay in our silos,” he says. “This limits innovation.”
Dr.Dinesh Agrawal advocates for vertical ecosystems, where fields like engineering, management, and medicine collaborate to solve real-world problems. He’s hopeful that this shift will eventually happen and take India to global research heights.
Dr.Dinesh Agrawal begins by stating that everything ultimately depends on an individual’s interest and initiative. He recalls a specific example that illustrates how incentivizing IPR can ignite a chain of innovation. “One of the earliest copyrights published under our scheme earned the faculty member ₹5,000 as an incentive,” he says. That small gesture led her to return repeatedly to his office with new ideas, including suggestions on how to customize conventional instruments using engineering techniques to improve results and add novelty to the process.
To support such interdisciplinary innovation, Dr.Dinesh Agrawal mentions how he personally initiated multiple MoUs with peripheral engineering colleges. Notable among them was a collaboration with Government Engineering College, Karad—one of Maharashtra’s oldest engineering institutions—as well as with Rajarshi Shahu College of Engineering, an excellent private institute. “When I requested the principal of Government College to allow collaboration, I also sent a student to present a real-world use case,” he explains.
This student, from physiotherapy, worked with engineering students to design a customized shoulder orthotic with cathode-anode and microcontroller elements integrated into the device. Dr.Dinesh Agrawal proudly coined the slogan: “Physiotherapy to every home”, highlighting how this device could allow patients to receive treatment from home rather than visiting a hospital for each session.
The device was successful, widely adopted, and distributed free of cost to rural populations by the university’s workshop. Following this, another student in Bachelor of Physiotherapy (BPTH) created a foot orthotic—again designed in collaboration with engineering students—and both of these innovations are now patented.
Dr.Dinesh Agrawal then mentions a group of students and faculty who began designing customized surgical tools, especially for neurosurgery and skull operations. These innovations were born out of real clinical feedback, where doctors realized that conventional surgical kits were not optimal for skull procedures. He says, “What we are developing now is a complete neurosurgical kit, tailored specifically for brain operations, unlike the generic surgical tools commonly used.”
Another powerful example he shares is from the Anatomy Department, where faculty formulated a chemical preservative as an alternative to formalin. This solution, when injected within five hours of death, can preserve a body for five days without odor, and allows for real-time surgical training as if the patient were under anesthesia. Dr.Dinesh Agrawal confirms this solution is being submitted for provisional patent filing and will be shared with the Government of India.
He highlights that many of these innovations have already received ICMR grants for further development. “Last year, our product ‘Gumer’, a handheld gun massager designed for the elderly, received ₹20 lakhs for product development,” he shares. Other projects received ₹20–22 lakhs each, and this year five more IPR-backed projects have been selected for development support.
Dr.Dinesh Agrawal explains that product commercialization in medical fields isn’t easy, especially because of regulatory licensing from bodies like DCGI. Clinical trials are mandatory and must pass through multiple stages, similar to how products are categorized into TRL levels (Technology Readiness Levels 1–5). However, the ICMR is actively funding innovative projects, even offering crores of rupees to bring impactful medical products to market.
He reassures that while the approval process for medical products is strict, Krishna Vishwavidyalaya is uniquely positioned—thanks to its in-house hospital facilities—to conduct validation and verification trials at the local level before approaching national agencies.
When asked whether ICMR funding is difficult to secure, Dr.Dinesh Agrawal confidently replies, “Not at all. Last year, we received ₹7.6 crore from ICMR.” He clarifies that while engineering and medical colleges have separate funding bodies, interdisciplinary collaborations are now widely encouraged. In fact, engineering or management faculty can also apply for ICMR grants as co-investigators (CI) or principal investigators (PI) in medical research projects.
He strongly advocates for collaboration between engineers and doctors, stating: “There was a time when medical and engineering colleges were always at odds, but not anymore. Now, doctors and engineers must collaborate—not just work together, but become inseparable partners in innovation. Doctors cannot function without engineers today. In fact, only engineers can survive without doctors,” he quips.
Dr.Dinesh Agrawal’s message is clear—interdisciplinary innovation is the future of healthcare, and IPR is the bridge that connects academic research to real-world impact.
Dr.Dinesh Agrawal begins by explaining that the structure and success of an innovation ecosystem in any institution largely depend on the management’s willingness and financial commitment. “There are generally two types of research cells,” he says. “One that is just limited to publications and book chapters, and the other that is dynamic—actively working toward creating IPRs and commercialization. But to go beyond just research papers into IPR, funding is essential,” he emphasizes.
He points out that patenting is not a zero-cost activity. The process involves charges, filings, and legalities. Unless an institution is ready to financially support these initiatives, it will remain stuck in superficial research output. “If the management agrees to fund the patenting process,” he explains, “then the research cell in-charge must spark the interest of stakeholders—faculty, students, and collaborators.”
Dr.Dinesh Agrawal insists that demonstrating success stories is the best way to ignite this spark. “When a product reaches commercialization, it becomes a case study in itself. The person involved gets lifelong benefits and recognition. This excites others,” he says confidently.
To illustrate, he shares an example of a cost-effective medical innovation created at the university. “We developed a diabetic injection cap for insulin pens,” he shares. “Normally, these pens cost around ₹1,000, which isn’t affordable for rural populations. But we designed a cap that brings the cost down to just ₹2. Using this cap and a regular syringe, diabetic patients can take multiple doses without needing to replace expensive pens.”
Dr.Dinesh Agrawal explains that this solution was created keeping farmers and rural communities in mind. “If we want to survive in rural ecosystems, our innovations must be affordable and practical,” he says. The university is now working on bringing this product to the commercial market, emphasizing that commercialization with compassion is their guiding principle.
Moving forward, he highlights how Krishna Vishwavidyalaya is expanding its focus into technology transfer and entrepreneurship. He urges listeners and viewers to collaborate with the university, stating:
“If you have a product or a prototype that needs help with technology transfer, startup incubation, or commercialization, we’re here to support you.”
He explains that the university offers free incubation support, meaning there is no cost to innovators for developing their projects on campus. They also have a dedicated presence at the Pune University Research Park Foundation, where a Krishna Vishwavidyalaya representative helps innovators connect with the right mentors, funding, and facilities.
Dr.Dinesh Agrawal invites startups and inventors to visit their research and incubation centers both in Pune and Karad. “Within the next one or two years,” he says, “you’ll see an even more evolved ecosystem, filled with startups, tech transfers, and socially impactful products.”
He closes with an open invitation:
“You are welcome to visit us at any point. Just call Suneet or me, check our website for more details, and reach out. We’ll support you in your innovation journey.”
Through this conversation, we have learned that innovation is not limited to engineering or medical fields—it is about solving real-world problems. Dr.Dinesh Agrawal journey showcases how an institution can successfully integrate research, commercialization, and social impact.
If you are an innovator, entrepreneur, or startup looking to collaborate, Krishna Vishwavidyalaya University welcomes you with open arms. The university has established a thriving Innovation & Incubation Hub, designed to support and mentor budding entrepreneurs, researchers, and faculty members who aspire to bring their ideas to life.
Dr.Dinesh Agrawal emphasizes, “We believe in turning ideas into impact, and our facilities, mentorship programs, and research funding ensure that no innovation remains just a concept. Our Innovation Gallery, technology transfer support, and industry partnerships make it possible for innovators to take their projects from lab to market successfully.”
Whether you have a groundbreaking medical device, a disruptive tech solution, or a research-driven startup idea, Krishna Vishwavidyalaya University provides the platform, guidance, and funding to help you commercialize and scale your innovation. The doors are always open for passionate minds looking to make a difference in their fields.
Let’s drive innovation together and create solutions that impact lives!