All India Council for Technical Education Chairman Anil Sahasrabudhe has stressed on the congregation of the new initiatives of AICTE and Indian National Academy of Engineers (INAE) to encourage innovation.
Sahasrabudhe was speaking on the Centre's move to encourage innovation at the 2nd Indian National Academy of Engineers Youth conclave at the IIT Kharagpur yesterday.
He said important schemes have been initiated by AICTE, the national-level council for technical education in the country, to improve laboratory condition of institutions while distinguished fellows can now visit other centres for a full semester and claim reimbursement.
The research fellows will also be provided travel grant for presenting their research paper at conferences, he said.
Sahasrabudhe also said in a message to the conclave souvenir, the recent 'Smart India Hackathon' initiative by the AICTEs and MHRD involved Under Graduation students of technical institutions.
The 'Smart India Hackathon' was aimed at solving challenging problems of different government departments and ministries and state governments and engage with young students for creating worlds largest open innovation model, he said.
The AICTE chief said, "Many countries such as Canada, Australia, South Korea and Singapore have shown keen interest in participating under this banner. Certainly, these exercises help bring awareness and fundamental skills among students and help build the foundation for future innovation and skill development."
Students from different institutes competed in six sections at the Youth conclave which ended on August 12.
The students made their presentation at the finals on August 11-12.
While the School of Aeronautics, Neemrana, won the top prize for Optimising Food Chain Aspects in which students were asked to devise a product to store farm produce, Future Institute of Engineering and Management, Kolkata won the first prize in the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan category in which students had to segregate household waste.
The IIT KGP team lifted the first prize for 'Town Planning. In the Mobile Application Development category, IIT KGP won the top prize for both healthcare app development and digitisation of agriculture.
IIT KGP Director Partha Pratim Chakrabarti pointed out that this era is the time of convergence where people from different sectors work together to solve complex problems for technical and social excellence."
INAE President B N Suresh asked students to make full use of the conclave and interact with others.
Around 300 students from all over the country participated at the conclave.
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