The Central HRD minister, Smriti Irani recently remarked that the next year would witness the Government launching the Rashtriya Avishkar Abhiyan (National Innovation Mission). While attending the FICCI Higher Education Summit (HES), she was quoted saying that "Next year, we hope to roll out the Rashtriya Avishkar Abhiyan, which is a national innovation experience or initiative on behalf of the government of India so that in primary and secondary education, we can inculcate a desire for enquiry-based learning and a desire to possibly oscillate towards the fields of maths and science as a profession and not only something you pursue as part of your academics,"
When quipped about the rising issue of brain drain, her answer was that "The government of India seeks to find the money so that ideas don't leave our shores."
She was also quick to recall the other similar initiatives including the IITs & IIMs supported 'Unnat Bharat Abhiyan' which aims at the upliftment of our rural population. The event also saw a major announcement from Greg Clark who attended the summit in his capacity as the 'minister of state for Universities, science and cities, UK'. He launched the 'Generation UK-India programme' which would involve a participation of over 25,000 teaching aspirants from the UK coming to India and working as teaching assistants at the Indian schools, thereby developing their learning about the country's culture.
Supriya Chaudhuri, the professor emeritus of the Jadavpur University also took this opportunity to speak about the ambitious E-Qual project under which the university, in collaboration with a number of other institutions, is developing courses in critical thinking, human ecology and others. She said that "Working on these courses together is breaking the traditional system of rigid instructional practices. Technology has come in a big way and we would like to use it to go beyond traditional structures. These courses will cater to universities in India and Europe and will be taught through blended learning."
Tags: Rashritya Avishkar Abhiyan
Smriti Irani
Ficci
Higher Education Summit
Unnat Bharat Abhiyan
