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The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) appointed Dr. Abhay Jere as vice chairman on February 10. He took charge of the organisation on February 14 at the AICTE headquarters in Delhi. At the government’s Ministry of Human Resources Development, Dr. Abhay Jere served as the Chief Innovation Officer. Dr. Abhay Jere is appointed for a period of three years, or until reaching the age of 65, or until further orders, whichever comes first. A network of Innovation Councils was made possible in large part by Dr. Abhay Jere. Indian Innovation Councils (IICs) have been established under the Ministry of Education in 6500 educational institutions to support the development of local innovation ecosystems in these institutions while fostering the creation of their own startups during research. Recently, he has played a key role in designing an innovative MBA programme in “Innovation and Entrepreneurship” offered by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). Dr. Jere, a regular columnist for prominent English and local newspapers, is committed to enlightening Indians about the importance of innovation and entrepreneurship. Also, he created the “India First Leadership” Talk Series, which will broadcast on Lok Sabha TV.

The Cluster Innovation Centre (CIC) at Delhi University is accepting applications from individuals with startup ideas that have “commercial viability” in order to assist them in seeing their ideas through to execution. The deadline for applications is March 13. “Anybody from the university or in fact outside the university with a promising idea can apply,” said CIC Director Shobha Bagai. Four startups will be admitted and assisted by the university. Bagai stated that no financial assistance or stipend would be provided. “We are trying to help these young minds. We are starting startups which have certain ideas but are at the very very basic stage… they need working space and they need a certain mentor to take them to the next step,” she said.  Bagai stated that the CIC advertised the offer because it wanted to formalise the initiative. “Mentors will be from our faculty and people from outside.” According to Bagai, the institution would provide coworking space and mentoring support for 3+3 months as part of the effort. For the purpose of turning their idea into a product, the promoters must possess the technical know-how for prototyping. A committee led by faculty from CIC will evaluate applications based on a set of parameters. “We have already asked them to fill up a form. In that form, they have to give all the details, whether they are receiving any kind of funding and at what stage is their product. We have asked them about the flow chart about their plans,” Bagai said. The Cluster Innovation Centre, or CIC as it is more commonly known, was created to identify and capture innovations from industry clusters, village clusters, slum clusters, and educational clusters. “Under Cluster Innovation Centre, we used to design an incubation centre funded by the Ministry of Education. There were some successful startups under the DIC. “During the COVID, these things came to a standstill. We are now restarting that. We are focusing on start-ups,” the director said.

Under its newly introduced Summer Undergraduate Research Exposure (SURE) programme, IIT Hyderabad (IITH) will provide 150 internships to undergraduate students (non-IITH) this year. On the IITH website, at https://iith.ac.in/research/SURE/, the application procedure for all 18 departments has begun. The applications must be submitted by February 22. Beginning on May 15, the internship will last for two months (i.e. till July 14). For these two months, selected candidates would receive a combined honorarium of Rs 15,000. Applicants for the internship will be chosen departmentally based on their qualifications and interest in conducting research in the relevant topic. The internship is only open to second- and third-year BTech and BDes students, as well as third- and fourth-year Integrated MSc or first-year MSc and MA students.