New Delhi [India], November 25 : The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), in collaboration with the Ministry of Education's Innovation Cell (MIC), successfully hosted the Institution's Innovation Council (IIC) Regional Meet 2025 across eight cities--Coimbatore, Hubli, Jaipur, Noida, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Bhubaneswar. The programme was formally inaugurated by AICTE Chairman, Prof. TG Sitharam, from the AICTE Headquarters in New Delhi.
Addressing participants from all centres, Prof. TG Sitharam highlighted the remarkable journey and impact of the IIC initiative over the past seven years. He noted that the IIC network has emerged as one of the world's largest higher education innovation ecosystems, with over 16,400 functional councils across India. He added that its integration with AICTE's approval processes has made IIC formation mandatory for institutions to ensure innovation ecosystems get established and emerge from all AICTE-approved HEIs and participation from every state and union territory.
Prof. Sitharam emphasised that the initiative aims to expand beyond technical institutions to include all types of higher education institutes, nurturing a national mindset geared toward innovation, problem-solving and critical thinking. He credited this movement for contributing significantly to India's remarkable ascent in the Global Innovation Index--from 86th to 38th position in just ten years, with an ambitious target to reach the top 20 in the coming years.
Prof. Sitharam said that, AICTE emphasises building an IT-driven, R&D-focused innovation culture that transforms institutions into hubs of IP creation and deep-tech research. Institutions are encouraged to invest 5% of their revenue in R&D and pursue quality, collaborative proposals aligned with national priority technologies, supported by funding avenues such as NRF, AICTE, DBT and BIRAC. The successful City Innovation Cluster model, piloted in Vishakhapatnam, demonstrates how institutions, industries and investors can jointly drive product development. This framework aims to scale across 250 cities, enabling each city to innovate based on its unique strengths and contribute to India's emerging tech ecosystem.
"These one-day regional events are powerful platforms to cultivate a culture of innovation and strengthen India's ecosystem by fostering collaboration among institutions and stakeholders. The focus aligns with national priorities such as Swadeshi, Vocal for Local, sustainability, Atmanirbhar Bharat and Viksit Bharat," Prof. Sitharam added.
The IIC Regional Meets 2025 are being conducted in 26 locations in three phases. Each regional meet features open house exhibitions, poster displays focused on productization, Swadeshi Udyami Bazaar, parallel sessions showcasing best practices, Innovation Ambassador training, master classes by ecosystem enablers, one-to-one mentoring, innovation competitions, and the felicitation of outstanding innovators.