Punjab takes to innovation path for industrial boost
Focus to be on agriculture, energy, health, education, manufacturing and construction
PSInC has identified agriculture, energy, health, education, manufacturing and construction to analyse and implement strategies for inclusive innovation, after India declared 2010-2020 as the Decade of Innovation.
The National Innovation Council (NInC) had asked the state innovation councils to prepare innovation road maps to create a system. The state councils would replicate at their level NInC's national undertaking. The councils were set up to harness core competencies, local talent, resources and capabilities to create opportunities.
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Punjab innovation council is chaired by the chief secretary.
Speaking to Business Standard, Neelima Jerath, PSInC secretary, said, "There are many people in the state engaged in innovative activities. This talent pool should be used to drive the innovation agenda. The idea behind creating a sectoral road map is to bring innovation at the grassroots, so that it benefits people at large. We have constituted six committees - agriculture, energy, health, education, manufacturing and construction sector - for preparing the road maps. The committees have representatives from the government, the academia, industry and universities."
Some of the committees have already submitted their draft reports and a final report would be made soon, she added. Based on the inputs received from the sectoral panels, steps would be taken to develop an innovation eco-system in the identified sectors. The steps would include setting up institutional innovation committees (IICs) at universities and appointing a designated co-ordinator in each district to facilitate transmission of innovations to field applications or commercial ventures. These would be linked to the district innovation fund and an innovation fellowship would be instituted.