IGNOU Schemes

In order to promote the culture of innovation among the students and create an ecosystem for innovation in the University, NCIDE has taken up various initiatives including identifying student innovation, organizing idea competition and mentoring, supporting and guiding the students to innovate and generate new ideas and convert them into prototypes through workshops and training programmes, etc. Besides, NCIDE has been encouraging students to participate in various programmes and competitions on innovation organized by other agencies such as AIU, MHRD, etc. Some of such initiatives are given below :

Identifying Innovator Students

NCIDE is making all efforts to identify, recognize and nurture the innovators in the open and distance learning (ODL) system. Considering the students to be the most important stakeholders of the ODL system, the university has formulated a scheme for identifying, recognizing and supporting the innovator students of IGNOU. Under this scheme, IGNOU identifies innovator students from different parts of the country and they are given expert guidance and support by the team of experts. From 2018 an incentive in the form of Student Innovation Award has been included with this scheme. For this purpose, entries are invited by the NCIDE from IGNOU students for the Student Innovation Award. After the evaluation by a Committee of experts, the three best entries are selected for the Award. For more details Click here

Smart India Hackathon

NCIDE encouraged, motivated and guided interested IGNOU students to participate in the Smart India Hackathon initiative (SIH) organized by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) and AICTE in association with i4c and Persistent Systems. This was a unique Open Innovation Model for identifying new and disruptive technology innovations to solve the challenges faced in our country. As the event was related to Computer Sciences, the School of Computer Sciences was also requested to inform and mobilise its students to participate in this initiative. Out of the identified/ interested students, 6 teams were constituted as per the SIH guidelines. In consultation with SOCIS, NCIDE facilitated the teams in registration and submission of their ideas and proposals as IGNOU’s Single Point of Contact (SPOC). For more details Click here

Idea to Startup Scheme

Startups are expected to play a dynamic and resonant role for the future of our country by generating innovative solutions to various challenges faced by us. Recognizing the importance of startups in the socio-economic development of the country, Prime Minister of India announced the Startup India initiative on India’s 69th Independence Day with an aspiration to impart more “strength and inspiration to the talented young generation of India to do something new for India and humanity”.

Today, a new pool of talented youngsters are building their own business empires and made India the third largest startup base in the world. Initially, the startup was restricted to the digital/technology sector but now we find startups in other important sectors like agriculture, manufacturing, education and healthcare to name a few. The startup movement has now spread its reach up to the 3 Tier cities.

In view of the above scenario NCIDE has launched Idea to Start-up – An Innovation Scheme of Nurturing Startups@IGNOU. For more details Click here.