Prof. M P Poonia, Vice Chairman, AICTE added that students need to be given exposure, and must be prepared to bring solutions to the problems

Photo Credit : Shutterstock,

MHRD’s (Ministry of Human Resource Development) Innovation Cell organized the first Annual Innovation Festival along with AICTE today. The innovation cell showcased more than 70 top students’ innovation from across India. AICTE has also partnered with MHRD for initiatives which include the MOOC’s platform ‘Swayam’ and the Smart India Hackathon.

Prof. M P Poonia, Vice Chairman, AICTE spoke about the amendments on the MHRD’s recommendations saying,” As per the recommendations laid out by the ministry, we have implemented them and 80 percent of the academic curriculum has been revised. More than 50 percent of students have setting footprints in the industry, and 7 lakh students were sent out for an internship. Nearly 80 thousand academicians have been given training and skilling for better teaching pedagogy.”

Prof. Poonia also added that students need to be given exposure, and must be prepared to bring solutions to the problems.

Some initiatives of MHRD’s innovation cell include:

Atal Innovation Ranking: An initiative of Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Govt. of India to systematically rank all major higher educational institutions and universities in India on indicators related to “Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development” amongst students and faculties.

Student Start-up policy: An initiative to encourage to take up innovations and prepare them as entrepreneurs, rather than job seekers. 

Smart India Hackathon: A nationwide initiative to provide students a platform to solve some of the pressing problems in daily lives, and thus inculcate a culture of product innovation and a mindset of problem-solving. The last edition of the hackathon 57 thousand ideas being presented from 34 thousand teams in 2019.

Institutional Innovation Councils (IICs): This is another initiative to handhold tier II and tier III institutions to create a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship. 

MHRD aims to promote innovation and implications devised to lead the phenomenal growth of India’s educational domain. 

The event also saw the launch of various initiatives which includes the launch of  Smart India Hackathon 2020, Atal Innovation Ranking 2020 and Institution’s Innovation Council 2.0.