Rajkumar Ranjan Singh, Hon’ble Minister of State for External Affairs and Education, Government of India inaugurated E- Symposium On ‘Building Innovation Ecosystem in Educational Institutes’
New Delhi : In the second day of the ‘National Innovation Week’, Ministry of Education’s Innovation Cell and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) organised an E- Symposium On ‘Building Innovation Ecosystem in Educational Institutes’. The symposium covered sessions on innovation, human values and sustainability and highlighted innovation practices in higher educational institutes.
The event was graced by the presence of Shri Rajkumar Ranjan Singh, Hon’ble Minister of State for External Affairs and Education, Government of India along with Shri K. Sanjay Murthy, Secretary, Department of Higher Education, Smt. Anita Karwal, Secretary, Department of School Education & Literacy, Prof Anil D Sahasrabudhe, Chairman, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), Dr. Abhay Jere, Chief Innovation Officer, Innovation Cell, Ministry of Education, Government of India.
On the occasion, Shri Rajkumar Ranjan Singh, Hon’ble Minister of State for Education, Government of India launched a movie on “Smart India Hackathon”. He emphasised on the importance of the e-Exhibition which showcased various innovations by students from multiple educational institutes through a meticulously designed online platform.
Shri Singh said, “World of tomorrow can’t be a reality without a strong, innovative and enterprising India. Our innovators and entrepreneurs are playing their role in taking that freedom further by making an Aatmanirbhar Bharat. Educational institutions in India should shift their mindset to create an environment to facilitate high-quality research and entrepreneurship. Our country has one of the largest higher education systems and the third-largest start-up ecosystem in the world. Thus, our HEIs have enormous potential to serve as enablers in the Indian innovation and start-up ecosystem.”
The Ministry of Education’s Innovation Cell organizes multiple initiatives such as National Innovation Contest (NIC), Smart India Hackathon (SIH), and Institution’s Innovation Council and Innovation Ambassador Training Program.
Shri Rajkumar Ranjan Singh has congratulated 75 Innovation teams, which were supported by the Ministry of Education. These Innovations were also demonstrated in the E- Exhibition under Innovation Week, Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav celebration. These 75 Innovative technologies are developed by students and faculty and have huge potential to become startups.
These teams will receive financial assistance of upto Rs. 10.00 lakhs each for converting their innovations in to startups with further Incubation Linkage Support from Ministry of Education.
Smt. Anita Karwal, Secretary, Department of School Education & Literacy said, “New National Curriculum Framework (NCF) will include 5 important areas- Knowledge of India, Scientific Temper, Computational thinking, Citizenship and 21st century skills to achieve the goal of New Educational Policy-2020.” Ms. Karwal also congratulated the winners of the Toycathon-2021.
Shri K. Sanjay Murthy, Secretary, Department of Higher Education said, “In India currently we have 2500 Institution’s Innovation Councils and an additional 2500 IICs will be added in the future”. He emphasized that 10000 Innovation Ambassadors are already trained from higher educational institutions and additional 50,000 innovation ambassadors from the schools will be trained to drive the innovation and start-up ecosystem in the Educational institutions.
Shri Anurag Jain, Secretary, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade said, “These initiatives of Ministry of Education and DPIIT together will boost and motivate the early stage start-ups from academic institutions in India” He also congratulated the winners of Manthan, Toycathon and National Innovation contest for securing the seed grant and mentor support to converts the ideas into reality. Moreover, he appreciated the diverse range of solutions developed by these innovative teams that addresses various developmental challenges of our country.
The Inaugural program also appreciated the “MANTHAN 2021” winners. MANTHAN 2021 is a unique initiative to identify innovative concepts and technology solutions for addressing the security challenges of the 21st century faced by our intelligence agencies. MANTHAN-2021 was organized by the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D) in coordination with the Innovation Cell of the Ministry of Education and AICTE and was launched on 26th August 2021 at National Media Centre, New Delhi. Selected youths from Higher education institutions and registered start-ups across the country participated to offer strong, safe, and effective technology solutions using their technical expertise and innovative skills. MANTHAN has received 2303 ideas that are currently being evaluated by the group of experts and 14 teams were announced as finalists on 19th November 2021. The winners received prizes on 11th Jan with a total prize money worth of Rs. 40 Lakhs.
During the inauguration, the outcome of the Toy Business League (TBL) was highlighted, which is a joint initiative of Ministry of Education and DPIIT, Ministry of Commerce and Industry. Through Toy Business League, partnership between the toy makers and toy hackathon winners were established.
Prof Anil D Sahasrabudhe, Chairman, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) said, “e-symposium highlights building innovation system like investment, mentoring etc. and this symposium will further encourage our educational institutes to focus on building innovation eco-system within their campuses. This festival of innovation and culture will pave the way for making Atmanirbhar Bharat and a 5 trillion-dollar economy as envisioned by Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi”.
Dr. Abhay Jere, Chief Innovation Officer, Ministry of Education’s Innovation Cell, expressed his satisfaction over changing focus of Higher Education and School Education towards Innovation and Entrepreneurship. He emphasized that the Ministry of Education’s Innovation Cell has intensified its efforts to identify and support the ideas and early stage entrepreneurs from Education Institutions.
Post Inaugural session, a series of Key note sessions and panel discussions were held.