27th January 2024: MoE and AICTE hosted the IIC Regional Meet at Acropolis Institute of Management Studies & Research, Indore on 27th January 2024. Hosts had invited Higher Education Institutes that have an established IIC to the meet. The agenda of the meeting was to celebrate the achievements of IIC, orient and guide IIC-established HEIs for better performance, poster presentation, demonstration of innovations and startups, also organizing an exhibition of student entrepreneurs from the region.
Mr. Arun Panicker, Manager of the BSSS Incubation Centre and Convener of IIC was nominated to represent The BSSS by participating in the meet. There were more than 700 representatives from HEIs and also included innovators and startups. In the inaugural session, Mr. Dipan Sahu (Assistant Innovation Director, Ministry of Education’s Innovation Cell and AICTE) welcomed all the participants to the meeting. He briefed on the achievements of IIC in the recent year and detailed various schemes that are offered by IIC that can benefit innovation and the start-up ecosystem of an institute. He also detailed on YUKTI framework, through which institutes can maintain a repository of ideas, innovations, and start-ups developed in academic institutions to systematically foster the I&E culture by managing and nurturing these innovations by offering continuous support in terms of one-to-one mentorship, grant assistance, referral and linkage with incubation units, connecting with Angel/Venture Capital (VC) investors network, knowledge agencies, etc.
The next address was by Guest of the Day Mr. Ajeet Singh Narang who is a World Bank Expert. He discussed the changes made in the Indian Entrepreneurial Ecosystem by the Government and the facilities that are introduced to promote innovation and entrepreneurship. The facilities that were not available back in the day are easily available which can help any budding innovator or entrepreneur in their journey.
The inaugural session was followed by lunch and thereafter there were sessions organized in two tracks. With one track for HEIs and the second one for Startups incubated in HEIs. In the track session for HEIs, representatives of top-ranked IICs detailed various practices that can guide the HEIs in achieving desired results. They also discussed the importance of various programs of IIC which are Mentor-Mentee, Impact Lecture, and Innovation Ambassador. All of this was detailed by discussing the activities completed by them in achieving the top rank in IIC.
Apart from the session, the Regional Meet had a poster presentation, in which HEIs with IIC designed and presented a poster on the theme of IIC achievements by the HEIs. There was also an exhibition of innovations, products, and services by student entrepreneurs and incubation centers from the region.