Institution's Innovation Council (IIC), Punjab Engineering College (Deemed to be University) in collaboration with Entrepreneurship and Incubation Cell (EIC), PEC organized one-day Regional Mentoring Session on Proof of Concept (PoCs) for students, Orientation Session IIC 2.0 and Atal Ranking of Institutions on Innovation Achievements (ARIIA) 2020 for faculty on 19th July, 2019 under MHRD's Innovation Cell (MIC), AICTE, New Delhi. Students and faculty members from 48 IICs across North-Western Region of the country (Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh) participated in the event. The mentoring session aimed at bringing conceptual clarity on problem solving, ideation, innovation and entrepreneurship among students. The session focussed on developing the ability to view and analyze differently whilst stimulating tools to validate the idea and develop a Business Model Canvas (BMC) for their innovations, said Dr Anju Singla, President, IIC, PEC.
The session was inaugurated by Dr. Dheeraj Sanghi, Director PEC. A team from MIC led by Mr. Dipan Sahu, Executive Consultant, MIC, Experts from EDII, Ahmedabad (Knowledge Partner), and the team of EIC and IIC (Dr. Anju Singla, Mr. Mayank Gupta, Dr. Rakesh Kumar), PEC were also present. .
"We need to look at Entrepreneurship in a holistic way. A lot of people are afraid to step towards start-ups thinking that they cannot build the next Google. Creating jobs for even two people or opening a retail shop is also an entrepreneurship", said Dr. Sanghi.
"Today's Regional Mentoring Session at PEC is the first out of the 14 sessions to be conducted across India. A PoC contest was floated in June 2019 to all IICs. Around 1700 PoCs were received from all over India, out of which 110 students from the North-Western Region of the country participated in the contest. The selected students will get an opportunity to be part of National Start-up Boot Camp to be held at AICTE, New Delhi during the month of August. The best ones will get an opportunity to become a part of Indian Start-up Delegation exposure visit to South Korea and Canada ecosystems", said Mr. Dipan Sahu. He further informed that the registrations are open for ARIIA 2020 and the institutes interested in establishing an Institution's Innovation Council in their campus can also register with the MHRD's Innovation Cell.
Towards the end of the session students also pitched their ideas to team of experts and gained significant insights about their PoCs.