Pune: Army Institute of Technology holds orientation session on National Innovation Start-up Policy

Pune: Army Institute of Technology conducted an orientation session on ‘National Innovation Startup Policy’ with a focus on innovation and entrepreneurship. The event was conducted on the occasion of ‘Vijay Diwas’ by the Innovation Council of the institute.

COEP Bhau Institute Co-Founder and AICTE Student Startup Implementation Committee Chairman Sanjay Inamdar delivered the keynote address. Ministry of Education’s Innovation Cell Assistant Innovation Director Dipan Sahu was the guest speaker.

MHRD in association with AICTE is encouraging Higher Educational Institutes (HEI) to nurture innovation and entrepreneurship amongst students and further guiding the institutes to build an ecosystem for incubating student start up initiatives. One of the many initiatives undertaken by AICTE is formulation of National Innovation Start up Policy which can be used as reference to all HEIs.

Inamdar said, “There are 10000 institutes across the nation in which approximately 20 lakh students are taking education. Thus, job creation is very important and it needs to go hand in hand with growth. If students get introduced at UG level to entrepreneurship, they would build an entrepreneurial attitude, and may start working towards building their own venture and create employment for others.”

“Students do have very good potential but due to insufficient resources they do not get enough opportunity to pursue their ideas. Thus, HEIs should aim at providing the necessary equipment, lab facility and other eco-systems to the students on campus. The HEIs should encourage students for innovation and institute a culture of start-ups and entrepreneurship amongst them,” he added.

He further recommended that exposure to design thinking, building open design platforms and also exploring videos and films on entrepreneurship journeys, will contribute towards entrepreneurship culture. He also said that forming IPR cells and creating IPR awareness amongst students and faculty is very important.

Sahu highlighted details of National Innovation Start up Policy. He asserted that HEIs should reserve a minimum 1 per cent of their budget for such initiatives. He further added that institutes should always be co-owner for any patent filed by a student or faculty in the institute. He also asserted that,” Institutes should claim a very small percentage of equity from such start up initiatives. If we all work together with a mission for the start-up movement we surely will be able to compete with Israel and the USA.

Brig Abhay Bhat, Director, AIT, said that “Army Institute of Technology consistently encourages students for innovation and entrepreneurship. Due to efforts of the institute, two student start-ups have been launched in the year 2019-20 and four student start-ups are currently in different phases of incubation. The institute has been able to build a good ecosystem with the help of alumni network so as to support this student start up initiatives. AIT students actively participate in competitions like smart India hackathons and do come out as winners.”

The event was compered by Institute’s Innovation Council (IIC) President Dr (Mrs) Sangeeta Jadhav, AIT. Also present on the occasion were Principal Dr B P Patil, IIC Convener Dr Seema Tiwari and BHAU Institute CEO Vijay Talele.