INNOVATE INDIA 2017

National Research Development Corporation (NRDC) organized an annual event “Innovate India 2017” on 24th & 25th March 2017 at INSA New Delhi. An Award Ceremony for conferring NRDC Meritorious Innovation Awards for the Year 2014 and Year 2015 was held along with a Conference themed “Leveraging Innovation Ecosystem for Accelerating Start - ups”. Ms. Monu Singh, Assistant Professor - CSE and Ms. Shilpi Jain, Assistant Professor - IT,attended the event on behalf of Dronacharya Group of Institutions, Greater Noida.

The objective of this event was to bring together all stake holders viz., Industry, Academia, Innovators, R&D Organizations and Policy Makers to discuss, share and learn about cutting edge manufacturing innovations and technologies that can help in enhancing productivity, improve quality and add growth at the bottom of pyramid.

The Conference was structured to cover following aspects:

1. Prize Awards Ceremony for NRDC Meritorious Inventions

2. Start - Ups: Opportunities and Challenges

3. Enabling Start - ups for Fostering Inclusive Growth

4. Innovation Ecosystem: Indian Perspectives Vs Global Scenario

5. Role of Incubators in Creation of Start-ups

6. Technology  Commercialization from Universities / Public Funded Research Institutions: Case Studies

7. National IPR Policy: Key take away

Day 1: 24th March 2017

The Chief Guest of the conference Dr. Harsh Vardhan (Hon’ble Minister of State, Ministry of Science and Technology and Ministry of Earth Science, Govt. of India) inaugurated the session by lighting the lamp.

Dr. Girish Sahni, Secretary, DSIR and DG, CSIR, formally welcomed all the dignitaries and gave a brief description about NRDC. He mentioned that NRDC with its good track record should further forge ahead as a leader for taking the technology to the people particularly those who do not get sufficient financial support.

The session was followed by an award ceremony intended for assisting and encouraging individual inventors for their meritorious inventions and providing financial assistance for developing promising idea into practical shapes. The award was categorized into three categories: NRDC Innovation Award, NRDC Societal Innovation Award and NRDC Budding Innovator Award. Dr. Harsh Vardhan presented the award to all awardees and congratulated them for their innovations. He conveyed his thanks to all innovative researchers from all over India.

In his address, Dr. Harsh Vardhan spoke about people centric approach for invention and extra ordinary zeal and role of Indian people having strong behaviour to lead the nation. He also emphasized that due to democracy dividend next 5 to 10 years are the golden period of the country, so we must nurture talent.

Dr. Harsh Vardhan shared his 2 year experience in ministry and stated that science and technology innovation system is lacking in innovation that needs to be further nurtured. He suggested that engineers and doctors can work together for developing good technology in the field of Medical Science. He mentioned that Indians are very innovative and are always involved in jugaad systems. He urged all to move with a great self-confidence and zeal to achieve the glory that is due for India. He concluded his speech by stating that there is a need for greater innovation in institutes like NRDC, CSIR.

Plenary Lecture 1

Theme: “Enabling Start Up for fostering Growth: National Perspective”.

Prof. Sachin Chaturvedi, (Director General,RIS, New Delhi) chaired the Plenary Lecture Shri Shailendra Singh (IAS), Joint Secretary, DIPP, Govt. of India was the speaker for this session. He stated that innovation is the latest incarnation of previous term like imitation and invention. He talked about the interactive portal where innovators put their issues regarding funding, launching and many more. He mentioned that 80 % of fund is provided by the Govt. of India. He also talked about the facilities provided by the DIPP Start - up India action plan. Mr. Singh concluded his speech by stating “if you have idea then sky is a limit”.

Plenary Lecture II

Theme: “Leveraging Innovation Ecosystem”

Prof. Ashok Parthasarathy, Former Secretary, Govt of India was the plenary chair. The speaker of the session Shri A. S. Kiran Kumar, Chairman, ISRO, Bangalore spoke about Indian Space Program vision in various fields like Socio Economic Security, Governance, Disaster Risk Reduction and Sustainable Development. He explained how space based technologies are used for the benefit of common man. He talked about research on Equatorial Electro Jet and Upper Atmospheric Dynamics. He also discussed the unique Space Application for Societal Development like capability for disaster warning systems, radio networking and transportable terminal. He talked about Incremental and Fundamental Innovation and said that majority of innovations fall in incremental category. He discussed the growth of satellite in India from 1975 to 2020 like INSAT-1, 2, 3, 4 and GSAT Series, Spot Beam etc.

Panel Discussion

Theme: “Start-up Opportunities and Challenges”

Dr. Prahlad, Former Chief Controller (R&D) DRDO, New Delhi chaired the panel discussion. In his speech on Start-up, he said that start - ups are essentially of two kinds. One that starts something ground up, something that no one has thought about and is often ground breaking. This type of start - up is difficult to create but once created often sees unprecedented growth. The second kind of start - ups that we see around us is primarily the ones that do not want to reinvent the wheel. They are akin to adding old sauce in a new dish to create something new and innovative. He put forward some points related to agenda of the panel discussion on the desk like Culture, Mentoring, Policies and Funding.

1. Mr. Mittal, Head, NSTEDB, DST, New Delhi said that the word Start - Up has replaced Entrepreneur. He made session interesting by narrating real life story. He said knowing the challenges and problems one may the unexpected, and possibly help avoid common pitfalls.

2. Dr. H. Purushotham, CMD, NRDC New Delhi suggested that one must first identify customer while launching a product and decide the price of the product accordingly. He also discussed the facilities provided and worked done by NRDC.

3. Ms. Padmaja Ruparel, President of Angel Network, New Delhi, said that innovation is something which is different but with an objective to reduce gap. She gave advised all innovators to “execute” in a proper way and always include all parameter like idea, fiancé, risk etc.

4. Shri Jaydeep Sinha, Sr. Managing Director, Madison Street Capital India Pvt Limited, Gurugram discussed the ground level issues of start up and said that most common reason for failures among our respondents was the lack of a cohesive team, or differences with co-founders. Others shut down because they were unable to raise funds or utilize funds raised effectively. Interestingly, more than half the founders have opted out of entrepreneurship and have taken up jobs in companies.

Technical Session- I

Theme: “Opportunities and Challenges”

Dr. D. Yogeswara Rao, Adviser, CSIR HQ, New Delhi moderated the first technical session. The first speaker of the session, Dr. S. S. V Ramakumar, Director (R & D), IOCL, Faridabad shed light on start-up India scheme launched by Hon’ble Prime minster. He said more than Rs. 300 Cr has been pledged by PSU, O&G companies under MoP & NG Ministry. He discussed area where anyone could put their start up ideas like low cost efficient vapour recovery, oil terminal management system etc.

Next speaker of the session, Dr. J. N. Verma, Life CareInnovation, Gurugram said Incubators are an organization, platform or team of experienced professionals that helps start - ups bootstrap during its early stages and often provides mentoring, guidance, co-working space, funding etc.

Mr. Mudit Narain, Manager, AIM, Niti Aayog, New Delhi discussed the importance of eco system for start - ups. He mentioned that digital technologies are presenting new opportunities and are transforming the environment around us. Socio - economic development requires transformative ideas and innovative approach for self - sustainable growth. Disruptive technologies can be the key components in improving social cohesion by providing various bridges for communication. He continued by saying that there are 6 cornerstones of smart cities and several challenges for smart cities as cities don’t scale. There are urbanization hot beds with insights of leading interventions, mobile transport, smart cities - building facilities, public infrastructure & services and smart analytics.

Dr. D. Yogeswara Rao concluded the session by saying that India needs to nurture its entrepreneurial ecosystem to create more Start - ups as well as opportunities for its vast young population to find employment.

Day 1 ended with an interactive session.

Day 2: 25th March 2017

Technical Session - II: Theme: Fostering Innovation through Start - up

Shri Sandeep Singh Kohli, Cofounder, XLPAT, Chandigarh conducted Technical Session - II on “Fostering Innovation through Start - up” which was chaired by Shri Deepak Bagla, CEO, Invert India, New Delhi. Mr. Sandeep discussed the importance of Artificial Intelligent and how AI techniques help to reduce the processing time. He showed live demonstration on AI to check the novelty of a product. He also showed some case study on UBER and Digital Payment. He showed we can save 92 % of search time by using Artificial Intelligent. He also talked about the patent and showed how they apply AI Technique on Patent to find the desired outcome. He also focused on Clustering Techniques.

Next speaker of this session, Dr. Raghunandan Rajamani, Executive Director, ISBA, Noida shed light upon the history of his company and how it has grown. He shared his thought on incubator and innovation. He said that there was a need to modernize ideas and explore new aspects of research. There is a need to make an effort and concrete plans about how to take idea or innovation forward.

Technical Session - III:

Theme: Technology Commercialization from Universities / Public Funded Research Institutions for Start - ups

Dr. Bindu Dey, Secretary, TDB, Govt. of India chaired this session. She introduced the objective of the session and said that one has to analyse time limit of the investment on the current research and also analyse whether there is a need to change the gear.

Dr. Anil Wali, Managing Director, FIIT, IITD, New Delhi talked about the knowledge transfer, technology transfer, importance of researcher and market dynamics.

Next speaker of the session, Dr. K. Muraleedharan, Director, CGCRI & NML Kolkata explained how an institute can play role in fostering innovation and entrepreneurship spirit in the campus.

Valedictory Session:

Dr. Purushotham praised NRDC’s contribution in filing about 17,000 patents in India and abroad and transfer of technologies to more than 4,800 entrepreneurs and signing of 4,800 licence agreements so far with many entrepreneur’s / start - ups / SMEs.

The session was followed by an award ceremony for Demonstrating Innovative Prototypes for Start - ups. Shri K. R Vaidheeswaran, Joint Secretary (Admin), DSIR, Ministry of Science and Technology, Govt. of India presented the award to all awardees and congratulated them.

The event ended with vote of thanks by Shri N. G. Lakshminarayan, Chief (BD), NRDC, New Delhi.

The event turned out to be a big success in bringing the best of minds on the same platform to share their perspectives, inventiveness and inculcate the spirit of invention in the country by giving awards for meritorious activities in various fields. Various stakeholders, including governments and the scientific and academic communities, were present on this occasion.