Rashtrapati Bhavan to host 'Festival of Innovation'

Looking to provide a thrust to the 'innovation ecosystem' in the country, President Pranab Mukherjee will on Saturday inaugurate the first-ever 'Festival of Innovation' in the precincts of Rashtrapati Bhavan here to provide a common platform for the interaction of the various stakeholders, right from students to bankers.
India ranks 76 on the Global Innovation Index, much below countries like Malta, Lithuania, Latvia, the Seychelles, Greece and Brazil.
The festival will see the coming together of innovation clubs of central universities, grassroots innovators, students, Nobel laureates, experts from the US-based MIT and University of California -- two leading institutes in the field of innovation -- and bankers for funding the grassroots innovation along with ministers.

"President Mukherjee is the first head of the state who is making such active efforts to promote innovation. It will be the first such festival in Rashtrapati Bhavan," Venu Rajamony, Press Secretary to the President, said here today.
The function, which is being organised in collaboration with National Innovation Foundation, will also focus on issues related to promoting "microventure funding" by banks on the lines of "micro-financing". That will be discussed in the Global Roundtable which will see the participation of Nobel prize winner Muhammad Yunus of Bangladesh, a pioneering figure in the field of microfinancing.
The week-long festival, which starts on March 7, will see some unique ideas from grassroots innovators which will be showcased in an exhibition focusing on three major subjects -- Make in India, Swachch Bharat and Adarsh Gram.

"We have sent an invitation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi as well, but so far there is no confirmation. However, the Minister of Health, JP Nadda, Minister of Science and Technology, Harsh Vardhan and the Minister of State for Finance, Jayant Sinha, will attend the function," said Prof. Anil Gupta of the National Innovation Foundation.