Meeting of National Innovation Clubs Held at Rashtrapati Bhavan

A meeting of National Innovation clubs of various Universities, IITs and NITs was held for the first time at Rashtrapati Bhavan today (March 10, 2015). This is part of the ongoing Festival of Innovations (March 7-13, 2015). The Innovation Clubs shared their achievements and ideas to promote innovations within their campus and outside. More than 100 participants participated in the National Innovation Club meeting.

Speaking on the occasion, Secretary to the President, Smt. Omita Paul stated that one creative mind can unleash a flood of creativity and prosperity.She said that it was her belief that the youth will rise to the occasion and take up the responsibility of bringing about change and extending the frontiers of knowledge in order to build an inclusive society. She said that the endeavour to set up Innovation Clubs was in order that they will help not only to bring out the needs of the local areas but the solutions to those problems as well.

Nobel Laureate, Prof. Muhammad Yunus also addressed the gathering and shared his experiences regarding Grameen Bank. There were presentations by Innovation Clubs of Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University, Lucknow, IISER, Mohali, IIT Indore, NIT Silchar and Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya, Wardha. Talks regarding future roadmap for development by Prof. R.K. Shevgaonkar, Director, IIT-Delhi and Director, NIT-Delhi were also held.

The Hon’ble President, Shri Pranab Mukherjee had exhorted the academia to set up National Innovation Clubs in Central Universities and Institutions of Higher learning viz IITs, NITs and IISERs. Accordingly, the clubs which have been set up, aim to promote inclusive innovations by linking the creativity in the formal and informal sectors. Primarily, the clubs aim at four functions: [a] search creativity and innovations, [b] spread information about useful innovations, [c] sense the unmet needs and [d] celebrate the spirit of creativity. Volunteers from among faculty, staff and students are expected to join hands with the innovators at different levels and in different sectors to ensure widest application for creative and innovative ideas.

This release issued at 1750 hrs.