During the inaugural session of the e-Symposium on Building Innovation and Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Educational Institutions held on 11th January 2021, the following programs took place:
Prize Distribution to Winners of the MANTHAN-2021: Hackathon “MANTHAN 2021” is a unique initiative to identify innovative concepts and technology solutions for addressing the security challenges of the 21st century faced by our intelligence agencies. MANTHAN-2021 is organized by the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D) in coordination with the Innovation Cell of the Ministry of Education and AICTE and was launched on 26th August 2021 at National Media Centre, New Delhi. Selected youths from Higher education institutions and registered start-ups across the country will participate to offer strong, safe, and effective technology solutions using their technical expertise and innovative skills. MANTHAN has received 2303 ideas that are currently being evaluated by the group of experts and 14 teams are announced as finalists on 19th November 2021. The winners received prizes on 11th Jan total prize money worth Rs. 40 Lakhs.
Industry partnership with TOYCATHON-2021 winners to take the innovations forward Under the ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan’ “Toycathon-2021” was organized to strengthen the Indian toy industry through challenging India’s innovative minds to conceptualize novel Toys and Games based on Indian civilization, history, culture, mythology, and ethos. Toycathon-2021 aimed at boosting the toy Industry in India to help it capture a wider share of the toy market. This is an inter-ministerial initiative organized by MOE’s Innovation Cell with support from the All India Council for Technical Education, Ministry of Women and Child Development, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Ministry of MSME, Ministry of Textiles, and Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. This first edition has successfully announced 117 teams as winners in three categories, presented by the school students, college students, and start-ups & professionals across different themes and tracks. For further handholding/deployment of the products, and industry interaction and incubation, A linkage event was held on December 21 and the successful partnerships were presented and felicitated during the occasion of the celebration of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav.
On the occasion of the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav celebration, the Ministry of Education identified 75 innovative technologies developed by students/faculty having start-up potential. Funding support up to Rs. 10.00 lakhs each will be provided to these innovative technologies. Moreover, mentoring and incubation support will also be provided in collaboration with partner agencies.
The launch of the Movie on “Journey of Hackathon” also took place during the inaugural session along with the above-mentioned programs.