On October 15, commemorating the birth anniversary of former President of India APJ Abdul Kalam, AICTE and MHRD's Innovation Cell organized "Innovation Day" in collaboration. The event saw a huge participation with direct involvement of around 1,06,134 students and 1,40,00 faculties while indirectly influencing more than 2,40,000 students and faculties across the country, as per a statement from MHRD's Innovation Cell.
All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) and MHRD's Innovation Cell had launched the first annual innovation festival on September 11 which was inaugurated by Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister, Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank'. Minister of State for HRD, Sanjay Dhotre was also present on the occasion. It was on this occasion an appeal was made by Chief Innovation Officer, Dr. Abhay Jere to celebrate, October 15, the 88th birth anniversary of former President APJ Abdul Kalam as 'Innovation Day'.
"More than 100 institutions organized essay competitions, around 150 institutions conducted poster presentation/ competition, more than 100 institutions conducted debate and around 35 institutions created short video on innovation in their campuses and cumulative of 42713 activities were conducted by 250 institutes between 1st October to 15th October 2019 to commemorate Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam's birthday as Innovation Day," the official statement added.
Lauding the success of the Innovation Day, Secretary Higher Education, R. Subrahmanyam said, "henceforth Innovation Day celebration should be an annual affair and next year we should aim at participation from all 10000 technical institutions and equally large number of non-technical institutions. Initiatives like Innovation Day, Smart India Hackathon, Institution's Innovation Councils, ARIIA will certainly help emerge culture of Innovation and entrepreneurship as the primary fulcrum of our education system".
Speaking on this, AICTE Chairman, Professor Anil Sahasrabudhe said that: "initiatives like Innovation Day will aggressively help percolate the concepts and opportunities that India offers in the field of startup and entrepreneurship amongst masses. It will also help us convey all that new ideas need to be celebrated and supported which is very critical for establishing innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem within our education institutions."
A nationwide campaign was launched by MHRD's Innovation cell and AICTE on October 1 to celebrate October 15 as 'Innovation Day'. All higher education institutions were requested to undertake activities related to innovation and start-up. They were also asked to conduct the activities in nearby schools and communities. Institutes were given tasks to organise various activities such as idea competitions, hackathons, essay writing, poster presentation, discussions of case studies, quiz, short videos on best innovative practices/ innovation, innovators, successful start-ups and incubation facilities, etc. said Dipan Sahu, national coordinator of Institutions' Innovation Council (IIC) at MHRD's Innovation Cell.
