To commemorate 75^th years of progressive India 'Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav', Ministry of Education (MoE), AICTE and Ministry of Commerce& Industry (DPIIT) are jointly organising ‘National Innovation Week’ from 10^th – 16^th Jan 2022. The innovation week is also the iconic week of Ministry of Education. This Innovation week will highlight various initiatives undertaken by these agencies to spread awareness to promote innovation and entrepreneurship in India. Renowned personalities gracing the occasion with there presence are Shri Sridhar Vembu, Founder, ZOHO Corporation, Dr. K. Radhakrishnan, Ex-Chairman, ISRO, Shri Ankit Agarwal, Founder & CEO, Phool, Smt. Arundhati Bhattacharya, Chairperson & CEO, Salesforce, Smt. Sri devi Pankajam, MD, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Shri C V Raman, Chief Technology Officer, Maruti and many more

A 2 days long e- Symposium on ‘Building Innovation Ecosystem in Educational Institutions’ will be held on 11^th and 12^th January 2022 by the Ministry of Education. E-Symposium will be inaugurated by Shri Rajkumar Ranjan Singh Minister of State for Education on 11^th Jan 2022 at 10.30 AM. Program will be held virtually and it will see huge participation from academic institutions, schools, industry, Start-up and investor community.

From 10^th January onwards, 75 innovative technologies selected from various programs such as National Innovation Contest, Smart India Hackathon, YUKTI2.0 and Toycathon conducted by the Ministry of Education will participate in e-exhibition and demonstrate their innovations. Alongside exhibition, there are full day activities scheduled for 11^th and 12^th Jan comprising of multiple key note sessions and panel discussions on emerging areas related to innovation and entrepreneurship in HEIs and schools.

Prof Anil D Sahasrabudhe, Chairman, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) said the Innovation week will inspire young innovators to solve the problems faced by society through constructive ideas and address upcoming challenges. Proposed symposium highlights key aspects for building innovation system like investment, mentoring etc. and we believe that this symposium will further encourage our educational institutes to focus on building innovation eco-system within their campuses. As India is witnessing an exponential growth in terms of number of Start-ups, concerted efforts to create holistic innovation culture will pave the way for making Atmanirbhar Bharat and a 5 trillion-dollar economy as envisioned by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, he added.

Dr. Abhay Jere, Chief Innovation Officer, Innovation Cell, Ministry of Education said that the Innovation Week is an opportunity for all innovators to showcase their work and inspire the young minds to take their entrepreneurial journey more seriously so that India can emerge as a global Innovation and Start-ups hub. As Innovation Cell, we are under taking multiple Innovation, Entrepreneurship related initiative and through this symposium we would like to encourage our educational institutions to work closely with us so that a sustainable ecosystem is establish within the campus, he added.

Eminent industry leaders, emerging unicorn founder, investors and policy practitioners will join as key note speakers and panellists to share their views and perspective on different aspects of innovation and start-up. Special panel sessions consisting of panellists from early stage start-up founders, and student innovators will be held to motivate school kids and young minds to pursue innovation and entrepreneurship as career choice.

The program is aiming to sensitize and orient the stakeholders as part of innovation and Start-up ecosystem in academic institutions.

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MJPS/AK