IIT Delhi innovation centre inaugurated

 Union Human Resource Development minister Kapil Sibal inaugurated the Indian Institute of Technology's Delhi innovation centre on Friday.

The centre was an idea which the alumni of the institute converted into reality.
 “The country has to prepare its children for global opportunities and one needs to foresee what role IIT will play in 2020-30 to fully contribute in the growth of the nation” said Sibal, at the event.

The minister recently proposed an Indian Innovation Act. “This Act will help make  students more innovative and weaken bureaucratic control over research and development in scientific institutions”, he said.

Alumni initiative
The Innovation Centre is the brainchild of a group of 40 alumni from the 1986 batch. The centre is designed to help students from different disciplines to work on innovative and creative projects with fresh approach to research outside their curriculum.

“This is our way of giving back to our alma mater. The Innovation Centre will foster the spirit of innovation among students of IIT Delhi and provide the perfect springboard for entrepreneurial activity,” said alumnus, Ejaz Hoda.

Mentor
The centre aims to mentor students on socially and commercially relevant projects, support  co-curricular activities like robotics and develop cross-linkages with other innovation programmes.

The idea of the innovation centre came during the silver jubilee reunion of the Delhi batch of 86 in 2010 and a sum of Rs 50 lakh was collected to build it.

“These initiatives are the result of a new collaborative relationship between IIT-Delhi and its alumni. We have a great academic team at IIT-Delhi that is keen to forge new paths and take the institute to new heights. The centre will provide space, tools and more importantly, the mentorship to students to think out of the box and come up with something new,”said another alumnus S K Gupta.

More centres
G H Keswani Research Centre, is another alumni initiative that will be launched soon. The foundation stone for this was also laid down by Sibal on
Friday.