The Ministry of Education (MoE, erstwhile MHRD) has established the MHRD’s Innovation Cell (MIC) to systematically foster the culture of innovation within all Higher Education Institutes. The primary mandate of MIC is to encourage, inspire and nurture young students by supporting them to work on new ideas. The MIC has envisioned the creation of the Institution’s Innovation Council (IIC) across select Higher Education Institutes. A network of the IICs will be established to systematically promote innovation in the institutions. In view of the above, the IIC at IGNOU was established on October 15, 2018 and reconstituted as IIC 2.0 in October 2019. On 29th October 2020, the IIC 2.0 was reconstituted as IIC 3.0. The IIC 4.0 was reconstituted in November, 2021.
The term of IIC 4.0 is for a period of one year from the date of issuance of the Notification. The Council has 48 members with Dr. Oum Prakash Sharma, Director, NCIDE as the President, Dr. U. C. Pandey, Senior Regional Director, IGNOU Regional Centre Bhopal as the Vice President, and Dr. Moumita Das, Deputy Director, NCIDE as the Convener. There are seven teachers and academics as coordinators of various activities and fourteen teachers and academics from various Schools, Divisions and Regional Centres as members. There are nine external experts as members, who are from an incubation centre, lead investor, industry and IPR. There are five coordinator students and ten student members of IGNOU.
To build and streamline innovation and start-up ecosystem at the institutional level.
To conduct various innovation and entrepreneurship-related activities prescribed by MIC in time bound fashion.
Identify and reward innovations and share success stories.
Organize periodic Workshops/Seminars/Interactions with Entrepreneurs, Investors, Professionals and create a mentor pool for Student Innovators.
Organize Hackathons, Idea Competition, Mini-Challenges, etc. with the involvement of industries.
Students/Faculty associated with IIC will get exclusive opportunity to participate in various Innovation related initiatives and competitions organized by MHRD.
Opportunity to nurture and prototype new ideas.
Mentoring by Industry Professionals.
IIC 7.0
IIC 6.0
IIC 5.0
IIC 4.0
IIC 3.0
IIC 2.0
IIC 1.0