On the occasion of presenting ‘Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam IGNITE competition awards 2015’ at IIM Ahmedabad, Hon’ble President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee on his maiden visit, engaged with the faculty and students of this prestigious institution and emphasized on improving the higher education in the country.
It was the maiden visit not only to IIM Ahmedabad but also to Gujarat of the Prez on Nov 30, 2015 that saw him addressing the students and faculty on how to improve Higher Education in India, and on nurturing the innovation ecosystem in the country. The President presented the ‘Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam IGNITE competition awards 2015’ constituted by the National Innovation Foundation – India (NIF) to 41 students from 18 states across India for their 31 creative ideas.
The Hon’ble Governor of Gujarat, Shri OP Kohli; the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Gujarat, Smt. Anandiben Patel; Prof. Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary, Dept. of Science & Technology, Govt. of India; Prof. Ashish Nanda, Director, IIMA; Dr. RA Mashelkar, Chairperson, NIF; and Prof. Anil Gupta, Executive Vice Chairperson, NIF graced the occasion.
Addressing the august gathering of future managers and academicians Hon’ble President said, “IIMA has had an illustrious history. It has excelled in academics and given the best of management talent to India and to the whole world.” He urged the faculty, students, and alumni of IIMA to continue to engage with creative minds from industry, business, entrepreneurs, society leaders, and those who work at the grassroots. “It must strive to be a beacon of knowledge, nurture other institutions with generous mentorship, and maintain a culture that blends the drive for excellence, and performance with the spirit of collaboration and compassion…NIF and IIMA has given a global identity to the Indian model of social innovation,” he added further.
Dr. R.A. Mashelkar talked about reinventing and reimagining India through inclusive innovations. Prof Ashutosh Sharma talked about various initiatives that the Department of Science and technology has undertaken to promote the culture of inclusive innovations in the country. He informed the audience about two new initiatives, where NIF would play an important role— the INSPIRE scheme for school children and a competition to harness the creativity of ITI students.
Lauding the awards, Smt. Anandiben Patel, Chief Minister, Gujarat said: “This year’s IGNITE is a befitting tribute to Dr. Kalam’s legacy. There is no dearth of talent among the youth of this country. When I saw the list of award winners, I observed that a majority are from the rural areas.” The Chief Minister particularly mentioned two innovative ideas viz. solar farming machine and foldable hand cart, which have the potential to help a lot of farmers in Gujarat.
The Hon'ble President in his address also talked about linking higher education, innovation and industry and briefed some of the innovation promotion activities being carried out by his office such as the ‘Innovation-in-Scholar Residence programme, where select innovators are provided residency for a couple of weeks at the President House. He also mentioned about the Festival of Innovation organised at the President House with support of NIF to link grassroots innovators with the innovative minds at different levels in diverse fields.
On the occasion, Prof. Ashish Nanda, Director, IIM Ahmedabad said: “I believe President Mukherjee’s name will go down in history as the “Education President” for the unprecedented and gratifying encouragement and attention he and his staff have been providing consistently to leaders of academic institutions.”
In his speech Prof. Nanda mentioned 3 key ongoing projects at IIM Ahmedabad namely Restoration and expansion of iconic campus of IIM Ahmedabad; Expansion of IIMA’s doctoral program to nurture research at the institution and provide much-needed high-quality faculty for management institutions in the country, and Focused research that crosscuts traditional management disciplines on topics of deep import to the nation such as - data analytics, social enterprise, and grassroots.
Dr Nanda urged for support from government on all the three projects as they require significant financial outlays and their benefits redound not only to the institute but to the nation.
Earlier, the President visited the IGNITE Award Exhibition showcasing award winning ideas and prototypes by students organised by NIF at the venue. In his address, he said, “The children have proved that innovative spirits can dispel any amount of inertia and replace it with exciting new possibilities...Innovations from creative youngsters are the best examples of "Samvedna se srijansheelta" (innovation form compassion or empathy)”. The Hon’ble President was also briefed about the activities being undertaken by the students clubs at IIM Ahmeadabad. A display of various publications of IIMA was also put up at the venue.
Vote of thanks was carried out by Prof Anil Gupta with congratulations to all the young award winners. He also complimented Smt Anandiben Patel, the Hon'ble Chief Minister of Gujarat for immediately considering implementation of two students’ ideas she saw at the exhibition.
National Innovation Foundation-India (NIF)
The National Innovation Foundation–India (NIF), set up by the Department of Science and Technology, builds upon the Honey Bee philosophy of inclusive empathetic innovations. It is a national initiative to serve the knowledge-rich, economically poor people of the country. NIF is committed to making India innovative by documenting, adding value, protecting the intellectual property rights of the contemporary unaided technological innovators, as well as of outstanding traditional knowledge holders and disseminating them on a commercial as well as non-commercial basis by expanding the public domain of frugal extremely affordable solutions.
NIF has a database of more than 2,25,000 technological ideas, innovations and traditional knowledge practices (not all unique, not all distinct) from over 575 districts of the country. NIF has till date recognized more than 775 grassroots innovators, communities and school students at the national level in its various award functions. It has also set up a Fabrication Laboratory (Fab Lab) with the help of MIT, Boston, for product development apart from strengthening in-house research and development facilities for the initial validation of herbal technologies. Pro bono arrangement with patent firms has helped NIF to file over 775 patents (including eight filed in USA and twenty seven PCT applications) on behalf of the innovators and outstanding traditional knowledge holders of which thirty eight patents have been granted in India and five in the USA. It has also set up NIF Incubation and Entrepreneurship Council (NIF-ientreC), an incubator which provides in situ incubation support to innovators at their doorstep, only incubator to do away with residency requirement and supporting innovators where they live and work.
The grassroots to Global (g2G) model that NIF is propagating is all set to change the way the world looks at the creativity and innovations at grassroots.
Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam IGNITE Awards
IGNITE is a national competition of school students’ technological ideas and innovations. It is an effort to focus primarily on the creativity of the children and promoting original inclusive and compassionate thinking among them. The competition is organised by NIF in association with Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), Society for Research and Initiatives in Sustainable Technologies and Institutions (SRISTI), various State Education Boards and other partners. A number of other State Educational Boards also actively promoted the campaign this year.
Students in (upto class 12) or out of the school (upto the age of 17 years) can participate in the IGNITE competition by sending their original technological ideas to solve any problem in day to day life or real life technological innovations demonstrating innovative ways of solving problems/ reducing drudgery/generating efficiency/ conserving resources etc. The awards are announced every year on October 15, Dr APJ Kalam’s birthday celebrated as Children’s Creativity and Innovation Day. The total number of submissions from school children received during the eight IGNITE campaigns (2008-2015) are about 99000 with 173 awards given to 242 children. Ideas of another 11 school children have received special mention. NIF files patent wherever feasible, converts their ideas into prototypes and provides possible incubation support in all applicable cases.
To commemorate the ever inspiring memory of Dr. Kalam, NIF decided to rename the IGNITE awards as Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam IGNITE Awards from this year so that creative children continue to draw inspiration from his spirit. Students all over the country participated enthusiastically in the IGNITE 2015 competition. 28,106 submissions were received from every State & Union Territory of the country during the competition period, September 1, 2014 to August 31, 2015. This year, a total 31 ideas by 41 students of 27 districts from 18 states were awarded for their ideas/innovations.
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