Festival of Innovation 2015
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[1 Festival of Innovation 2015 Building bridges for inclusive innovations President Secretariat Rashtrapati Bhavan National Innovation Foundation-India New Delhi [2 [3 Foreword in the innovation eco-system like Inclusive Innovation and Financing of educational and research institutions, Innovation were conducted during the and the industry, it will increase the Festival, which saw the participation survival rate of innovative ideas which of distinguished thinkers, policy-mak- can transform into start-ups. ers, academicians, entrepreneurs and nanciers. e recommendations that To promote an innovation culture in surfaced from these interactions have the country, the President of India has strengthened the linkages between the been taking numerous initiatives. He key players of the innovation eco-sys- gave a call to all the central institutes tem. e President also gave away the of higher learning for starting innova- Biennial Grassroots Innovations and [4 tion clubs that would serve as a plat- Outstanding Traditional Knowledge [5 form for linking grassroots innovators Awards on the rst day of the Festival. with the academic world and for ex- e second Festival of Innovations tending mentoring support for ‘mind- will commence on Mar 12, 2016 and to-market’ conversion of innovative should live up to the expectations of ideas. is initiative has received wide an occasion of gravity and purpose. support from the institutions. An In-Residence programme was started is book documents the various nnovation is the critical link two years ago, under which, inno- events that were held in the Festival of in the value chain of economic vation scholars selected from across Innovations 2015. It also contains the growth and development. e the country spend a few weeks at the takeaways from the many interactive President of India has been Rashtrapati Bhavan. sessions held during the week. It will constantly emphasizing about act as a valuable guide to the practi- Iinnovation and its impact on soci- To take the engagement of this Pres- tioners of innovation activity and to ety. He said and I quote: “e Indian idency with innovation further, a those who are keen to understand the innovation strategy must focus on week-long ‘Festival of Innovations’ emerging innovation landscape in our generating ideas that promote in- was organized at the Rashtrapati Bha- country. clusive growth and benet those at van for the rst time in March 2015 in the bottom of the socio-economic collaboration with the National Inno- pyramid.” ere are many innova- vation Foundation. It demonstrated tions taking place in dierent parts of new technologies and products made Omita Paul our country. If such innovations are by the grassroots innovators. Global Secretary to the President of India linked properly with the key players Roundtables on pertinent topics like March 7, 2016 [6 [7 First Festival of Innovations Rashtrapati Bhavan, Delhi March 7-13, 2015 he celebration of grass- new initiative launched recently, ten tion towards recognition, respect and roots innovation at Rash- innovation scholars in-residence were reward for the unsung heroes of our trapati Bhavan empowers hosted at the President’s house for two society. is will help in making India creative communities in weeks. e FOIN was organised by a creative, compassionate and collabo- a manner that was never the President’s Secretariat, assisted by rative society. Ttried before in the history of the coun- the National Innovation Foundation try. e rst Festival of Innovation (NIF) and Society for Research and e President of India, Hon’ble Shri (FOIN) March 7-13, 2015, at Rashtra- Initiatives for Sustainable Technolo- Pranab Mukherjee, inaugurated the pati Bhavan, New Delhi, focused the gies and Institutions (SRISTI), part of week-long FOIN, aimed at creating an attention of the nation towards the e Honey Bee Network. inclusive ecosystem to boost grass- untapped potential of knowledge-rich, roots innovations in India. economically poor people. India is e Honey Bee Network, a social . perhaps the only country where the movement to uncover the hidden head of the state hosts such a festival innovative talent, started 25 years at his house. Not only that, under a ago and has made a small contribu- Events as part of Festival of Innovations [8 [9 t .BSDI#JFOOJBM(SBTTSPPUT*OOPWBUJPO"XBSETPG/*' BUUIFIBOETPGUIF1SFTJEFOUPG*OEJB )POCM4ISJ1SBOBC Mukherjee t .BSDI BęFSOPPO (MPCBM3PVOEUBCMFPO*ODMVTJWF*OOPWBUJPOT t .BSDI(BOEIJBO:PVOH5FDIOPMPHJDBM*OOPWBUJPO (:5* "XBSEUPUFDIOPMPHZFOHJOFFSJOHTUVEFOUTBOEHMPCBM roundtable continued t .BSDI$IJMESFOTDSFBUJWJUZXPSLTIPQ t .BSDI.FFUJOHPG/BUJPOBM*OOPWBUJPO$MVCT t .BSDI#JPNFEJDBMEFWJDFTBOECJPUFDIJOOPWBUJPOTGPSHSBTTSPPUTBQQMJDBUJPO t .BSDI&YIJCJUJPOPGJOOPWBUJPOJOTBOJUBUJPO CJPEJHFTUJPOBOEXBTUFNBOBHFNFOU t .BSDI'JOBODJOHPG*OOPWBUJPO BOBUJPOBMSPVOEUBCMFPGDIBJSNFOBOETFOJPSPďDJBMTGSPN#BOLT /"#"3% *OEJBO Banks Association, Ministry of Finance etc. t $MPTVSFPG'0*/XJUIUIF1SFTJEFOUJBMBEESFTT /PCFM-BVSFBUF1SPGFTTPS.VIBNNBE:VOVT GPVOEFSPG#BOHMBEFTIT(SBNFFO#BOLBOEPUIFSEJTUJOHVJTIFEUIJOLFST QPMJDZNBL- ers, academicians and entrepreneurs, national and international, attended the conference. fOIN 2015 Day 1: Session 1 March 7, 2015 [10 [11 8th National Grassroots Innovations & Outstanding Traditional Knowledge Award Function [12 [13 Abdul I Nadakattan receiving Lifetime Achievement Award he President of India, Shri and Smt Omita Paul (Secretary to the and three student awards (see details of Pranab Mukherjee, gave President) along with Dr R A Mashelkar awards at http://nif.org.in/dwn_les/ Much as the blooming of the spring, the away the awards in pres- $IBJSQFSTPO /*' 1SPG"OJM,(VQUB BXBSECPPLTCJFOOJBM/*'@UI@"XBSE@ ence of Dr Harsh Vardhan (founder, Honey Bee Network), and Dr book_2015.pdf) innovations by local communities, students, .JOJTUFSPG4DJFODF Vipin Kumar, Director, NIF. farmers and others could bring smiles on the T5FDIOPMPHZBOE&BSUI4DJFODFT 4ISJ:4 Dr Mashelkar thanked the President for $IPXEBSZ .JOJTUFSPG4UBUF .JOJTUSZPG e awards were given in six categories fuelling innovations across the length faces of millions of our people 4DJFODF5FDIOPMPHZBOE&BSUI4DJ- — one lifetime achievement award, 17 and breadth of this nation. He added that ences), Dr Ashutosh Sharma (Secretary, national awards, one posthumous award, NIF has about 200,000 ideas, practices Department of Science and Technology) four state awards, 16 consolation awards and grassroots innovations. It has led -Shri Pranab Mukherjee QBUFOUT QBUFOUDPPQFSBUJPOUSFBUZ awarded. All of these were subjected to Dr Harsh Vardhan, Minister of Sci- 1$5 BQQMJDBUJPOT QMBOUWBSJFUZ technical and patent prior art search to FODF5FDIOPMPHZBOE&BSUI4DJFODFT QSPUFDUJPODBTFTBOETFWFSBMEFTJHOT ascertain the novelty/distinction and/or complimented the President for opening trademark applications. cost-eectiveness. e Research Advi- the premises of Rashtrapati Bhavan for TPSZ$PNNJUUFF DPNQSJTJOHUIFIFBET hosting the exhibition of grassroots in- Along with the grassroots innovators, PGUPQSFTFBSDIEFWFMPQNFOU 3% novations. He added, “NIF, with the help awards were also given to journalists for institutions, experts from engineering, of volunteers of the Honey Bee Network, their support to the grassroots innova- agricultural and veterinary colleges, vice has identied thousands of innovators tions movement, fabricators for helping chancellors of various universities from and traditional knowledge-holders from convert ideas into prototypes/products, dierent parts of India, screened and all over the country. e regions from an international law rm for facilitating shortlisted the potential awardees. where we have not had many awardees intellectual property rights (IPR) protec- 4ISJ:4$IPXEBSZ .JOJTUFSPG4UBUF should be covered more rigorously in tion for these innovators in the USA, and .JOJTUSZPG4DJFODF5FDIOPMPHZBOE the coming years. Inclusive development TDJFODFUFDIOPMPHZDPVODJMTPG4JLLJN &BSUI4DJFODFT TBJEGPSJOOPWBUJPOTUP cannot take place if excluded region, and Uttar Pradesh for supporting the become successful there is a need for community sectors and other segments grassroots innovation movement, among collaboration between the academia, do not get recognised for meeting the others. industry, government, investors and unmet needs. I hope NIF will spare no lenders. He added that the recent Budget eorts to cover all such hitherto excluded NIF received about 35,000 entries during allocated a special fund for innovations segments of our society. It is not enough [14 GSPNTUBUFT PGXIJDIXFSF in rural areas. to identify and award the innovators. I [15 Hukum Singh Lodha’s Sitara-Sringar Im- proved Mustard variety am extremely happy that NIF has pio- e technologies developed by him – be vating products, he has helped upgrade neered the concept of Micro Venture it growing tamarind with alkaline water technical skills of thousands of school Innovation Finance (MVIF) to support or automatic sugarcane sowing – have dropouts, contributed to many social individual innovators in dierent parts helped many farmers boost farm produc- causes and promoted science, technology of the country, without any guarantee or tion and diversify into related activities. and innovation amid common people. collateral security. I am very keen that He devised several other innovations Among his innovations is a bullock NIF throws up many more challenges such as the tamarind-seed separator, life-saving system wherein sturdy ac- in the eld of sanitation, drinking water a plough blade that does not strain cessories