Marking the Birth Anniversary of Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, renowned Scientist and former President of India, Innovation Day was organized at Amity University, Noida. Institution Innovation Council of Amity University had organised a plethora of activities under MHRD’s Innovation Cell (MIC) to celebrate Innovation Day including Business Idea Presentation, display of Posters on Innovation and Entrepreneurship and skill enhancement workshops among others. Also, the maiden Great Innovation Challenge was also organized under the aegis of Amity Institute of Pharmacy. Students present on the occasion were encouraged to pursue their ideas and build upon the ecosystem around them. Shri Sujit Banerjee, Director NCSTC, Department of Science and Technology, Government of India while encouraging students to innovate as it gives them a strategic edge, also asked them not to be afraid of failure. “Technology gets successful by experiments. It’s very important to fail to learn to innovate. It is not necessary that we will be successful in every attempt. But we need to learn from our failures,” said Shri Sujit Banerjee. He also advised students to protect their ideas as it is their intellectual property and expand their network of friends to form a team that could lead to the formation of startups. Shri Vijay Kumar, Director, MSME-DI, Government of India shared with students that days like these remind students to start thinking differently from the others. “If a student selects a product and decides to value add to it, then the creative thinking will lead to innovation and create a change in the society. Amity University already has an approved centre of innovation by the MSME Ministry and I would encourage students to come up to the centre and discuss their new ideas or value addition to an existing thought. The ministry is there to support such initiatives,” shared Shri Vijay Kumar. Mr. Abhay Vaish, Global Head of IT Managed Services & ADM Delivery at Ericsson asked students to add on to the list of Indian innovations. “We as a country and you kids need to put in a lot of emphasis on developing our technology,” said Mr Vaish. During the Valedictory ceremony, Chief Guest, Mr. APJ MJ Sheikh Salim Dawood, Grandnephew of Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam & Head of Abdul Kalam International Foundation informed the students how the entire world is changing rapidly. “This is an era of digital transformation where you are dealing with data in a big way. Any innovation you do today, you have the entire world as your platform and you are targeting a global arena. As compared to earlier times, today any smallest of products created receives instant feedback which can be used to improve your products. And with technology playing a pivotal role, we are living in an interesting time period,” shared Mr APJ MJ Sheikh Salim Dawood with the gathering. Dr. Rajiv Sharma, DG, AFSTIA & Sr. VP, RBEF shared how this is the best time for innovation. “People are full of innovative ideas that will help the society,” said Dr Sharma. Also present on the occasion were faculty and hundreds of students during the day-long celebrations.
