Inauguration of MHRD Innovation Cell (MIC)
AICTE HQ, New Delhi
30th August 2018
MHRD Innovation Cell (MIC) was inaugurated on 30th August 2018 at the AICTE HQ by Shri Prakash Javdekar (Hon’ble Minister of HRD, GoI) and Dr. Satya Pal Singh (Honorable Minister of State for HRD, Higher Education) in the presence of Shri R Subrahmanyam (Secretary, Department of Higher Education, MHRD), Dr. Sukhbir Singh Sandhu (Additional Secretary, Technical Education, MHRD) and Dr. Anil Sahasrabudhe (Chairman, AICTE). Academicians from more than 500 Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) across the India attended the event. Mr. Anil Kumar Gillawat from Mechanical Engineering department represented Dronacharya College of Engineering, Gurugram at the event.
Ministry of HRD has established ‘MRHD’s Innovation Cell’ with the mandate to work closely with Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to encourage the creative energy of student population to work on new ideas and innovation and promote them to create start-ups and entrepreneurial ventures. MIC will focus on creating complete ecosystem which will foster the culture of Innovation across all educational institutions from ideas generation to pre-incubation, incubation and graduating from the incubator as successful start-ups. MIC will also work on designing ranking system to identify institutions in the forefront of innovation. MIC will actively engage various central and state agencies to ensure that dedicated budget is allocated for innovation related activities.
S.S. Sandhu, Joint Secretary (PG, MHRD) in his welcome speech said innovation is not just the need of the hour but now a matter of survival. He explained the organizations with no attention towards innovation will be immaterial in the coming time. Poor ecosystem for fostering innovations is the reason for India lacking in innovation inspite of high quantity and quality of intelligent researchers.
Introduction to MIC and its objectives were briefed by Prof. (Dr.) Anil Dattatraya Sahasrabudhe (Chairman, AICTE). He believed MIC will strengthen innovation ecosystem in India by (i) Developing a network of Innovation Clubs, (ii) Framing a Startup Policy, (iii) Taking Smart India Hackathon (SIH) to next level, and (iv) Launching Innovation Ranking framework, ARIIA on the lines of NIRF.
Later Hon’ble Minister of HRD and the Hon’ble MoS for HRD (Higher Education) digitally launched the MIC. Also, the official MIC website went live shortly after the launch.
Dr. Abhay Jere, Chief Innovation Officer (CIO), MIC and Innovation Director, MHRD, the brain behind SIH defined Innovation as converting ideas into new or improved products, processes and services. He further added all HEIs should have a comprehensive and function ecosystem to foster innovation and research which will encourage, inspire and nurture young students by exposing them to new ideas and processes resulting in innovative activities in their formative years. He said MIC will aim to improve the position of India in GII rankings by forming Innovation Clubs in all HEIs with initial target of setting up 1000 such clubs in coming few months.
Shri R Subrahmanyan revealed the Atal Ranking of Institutions on Innovation Achievements (ARIIA) framework for ranking HEIs and participation in first edition of ARIIA will be open for all institutes from 15th October 2018 (Innovation Day) and the rankings will be released on 28th February 2018 (Science Day). After this, the Hon’ble Minister of HRD released the ARIIA manual and Dr. Jere presented the parameters available in ARIIA manual. After this the two students from IIT-Guwahati were felicitated by the minister for designing ARIIA logo.
The MoS for HRD (Higher Education) in his address said innovation must be an integral and implicit part of our culture.
The Minister of HRD in his address described the role of the Innovation Clubs will be to create awareness, instil imagination and implement experimentation for promoting the culture of innovation amongst the students. He concluded his address with the slogan of JAI INNOVATION.
Prof. M P Poonia, Vice Chairman, AICTE then extended the vote of thanks to all the dignitaries and audience and concluded the first session with the national anthem after a story of intellect from village.
Second session started with the address by Prof. Partha Pratim Chakraborty, Director, IIT-Kharagpur. He emphasised on deeper understanding and need of scalable innovation. He said the innovation starts with desperation and a person cannot become an innovator unless that person is desperate. He also added innovations should aim for both the economic and the social benefits and must be based on real life problems.
Mr. Hiranmay Mahanta briefed the GoI initiatives for National Student Startup Policy and the efforts put by AICTE to promote entrepreneurship in India.
Dr. Anita Gupta, Associate Head, National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB), Department of Science and Technology (DST), GoI briefed the audience about various flagship programs of DST like Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Centre (IEDC), Nidhi-Prayas, Plugin, DST-TI India Innovation Challenge Design Contest (IICDC) etc. for the students, innovators and entrepreneurs.
Mr. R. Ramanan, Mission Director, Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) briefed the activities carried out by AIM to promote culture of innovation and entrepreneurship. He explained the achievements of Atal Tinkering Lab setup in schools and its contribution in educating and inspiring school going children about latest technologies like 3-D printers, IoT etc.
The session ended with the extension of vote of thanks by Prof. A P Mittal, Member Secretary, AICTE.