The Ministry of Human Resource and Development (MHRD) has recently established the MHRD’s Innovation Cell (MIC) to systematically foster the culture of innovation within all Higher Education Institutes. The primary mandate of MIC is to encourage, inspire and nurture young students by supporting them to work on new ideas. The MIC has envisioned the creation of the Institution’s Innovation Council (IIC) across select Higher Education Institutes. A network of the IICs will be established to systematically promote innovation in the institutions.

 

The IIC at IGNOU was established on October 15, 2018. The council has 19 members with Dr. Oum Prakash Sharma, Director, NCIDE as the President and Dr. Moumita Das, Assistant Director, NCIDE as the Convener. The other members are from an incubation centre, lead investor, industry and the students of IGNOU.

 

Senior Faculty Member of the Institution	President	Director (NCIDE) (Dr. Oum Prakash Sharma)
Faculty Member	Convener	Dr. Moumita Das, NCIDE
Faculty Member	Member	Dr. Jyotsna Dikshit, NCIDE
IICs Coordinator (Student)	Coordinator	Ms. Shelly Oberoi Doctoral Research Scholar, SOMS
Representative from nearby Incubation Centre	Member	Mr. Satvinder Singh Chief General Manager (TID) NSIC, Okhla, New Delhi
Representatives of SIDBI/ NABARD/Lead Bank/Investor	Member	Mr. Vipin Kaushik Branch Manager, HDFC, New Delhi
Technical Experts from nearby Industry	Member	Shri Rajesh Mukhija Associate Vice President, Hero MotoCorp Ltd.   Shri Venu Gopal General Manager, Sify Technologies
Alumni Entrepreneurs from the Host Institutions (Optional)	Member	May be nominated later as it is optional
Students from the host institution	Member	Jaivardhan Singh Rathore, PHDFL Pooja Tiwari, PGDAC Dheeraj Singh Negi, PGDLAN V. S. Shivan, MAPC Gone Mahendra Kumar, PGDHE Deepak, BSC Ajay Sharma, BSC Lakhvinder Kaur, PHDITS Dolly Jamwal, MEC Deepak Sharma, MCA
Patent Expert (Optional)	Special Invitee	Dr. Kishan Singh Kardam Sr. Joint Controller of Patents and Designs Delhi

 

The activities of the IIC include Workshops, Exhibitions, Seminars, Boot Camps for Entrepreneurship Development, Innovation Competition, Technical Expos, Hackathons, etc. The best innovative projects in the end of the will be selected and funded by the MIC.

 

The IIC has undertaken the following activities :

 

A workshop on Intellectual Property Rights was organized under the Institution’s Innovation Council for the teachers and students of IGNOU. This effort is expected to generate awareness among the participants about the various aspects of IPR and sensitize them about the role of IPR in innovation and invention. For more details Click here

 

A workshop on Cognitive Skills, Design Thinking and Critical Thinking was organized under the Institution’s Innovation Council for the teachers and students of IGNOU. This effort is expected to sensitize the participants about cognitive skills, design thinking process and critical thinking in general, and education in particular. This workshop also discusses how to improve cognitive skills, metacognitive skills and critical thinking. It explains cognitive skills, design thinking process and critical thinking through individual and group activities. For more details Click here

 

A Festival of Ideas was organized with the objectives to recognize, share, nurture and promote the ideas of the students of IGNOU. In the Festival, an idea competition was organized on February 28, 2018 to evaluate the ideas, proof of concept and prototypes. In this competition, an exhibition of ideas was organized through posters and oral presentation. A workshop on Business Plan Development was organized for all the selected students on March 01, 2019. The workshop was aimed to impart knowledge and skills related to Intellectual Property Rights, Design thinking, and Business Plan Development and facilitate them to convert their ideas into innovative products and services. For more details Click here