Calling for firm linkages between industry and academia to promote innovation in the country, Advisor to the Prime Minister Sam Pitroda on Wednesday said industrial clusters should pool funds and create dedicated teams to collaborate with universities on R&D initiatives.

"I would very strongly recommend that in each major cluster, FICCI and other industry associations should work with local teams, with industrial advisory board at local university, create a small cell for industry university linkage," Pitroda said while speaking at the India R&D 2011 event organised by industry body FICCI here.

He added that industry should create a fund pool for internships, as well as to fund initiatives by professors at these universities, to plant the seeds for innovation in the country.

Pitroda said that people should take advantage of the rapid strides India has made in the IT and telecom space.

"We have almost 900 million connected people. We are building a national knowledge network to connect 1,500 nodes with 40-gigabit bandwidth to connect all our universities, R&D institutions and, hopefully some day, all our clusters. If we can use our broadband to improve collaboration, I think it's going to be a step in the right direction," Pitroda said.

He said that the entire programme of creating a network will cost the government between USD 10 to 20 billion. The should be efficiently utilised by industry and academia, he added.