About

Institution’s Innovation Council of Central University of Rajasthan (IIC@CURAJ) was setup under the scheme of Ministry of Education to setup Institution’s Innovation Council in higher education institute (HEIs). Initially IIC@CURAJ set up with the aim of identifying, encouraging, and fostering scientific talent within the CURAJ family as well as surrounding areas.

Since 2020, it was realized that IIC@CURAJ must play a bigger role in developing entrepreneurial mindset in the faculties and students. Our nation targets to become 5 trillion-dollar economy by 2024. To reach this benchmark, HEIs have to plays a vital role by evolving ecosystem and mechanisms to convert the young minds into high quality technical human resource capable of doing cutting edge research, innovation and entrepreneurship. To develop this culture in CURAJ, IIC@CURAJ started conducting sessions on innovations, startups and entrepreneurship. The primary mandate of IIC@CURAJ is to encourage, inspire and nurture young students by supporting them to work with new ideas and transform them into prototypes while they are in campus. IIC@CURAJ puts in concerted efforts to identify grass-root innovators from neighboring villages in varied domains such as agriculture, engineering, etc. In the academic year 2020-21, IIC@CURAJ had secured three-star rating with 13 activities performed during the year.

 

Aims & Objectives

The primary aim of the IIC@CURAJ is to build a strong innovation ecosystem at CURAJ. To achieve this number of objectives have been decided by the IIC@CURAJ. These objectives are:

  • To develop a friendly innovation ecosystem among the faculties, staff and students where majority of stakeholders remain motivated for doing innovation in any area of their interest that is beyond the boundaries of departments.
  • To train and educate the faculties and students about various aspects of innovation and startups
  • To establish and adopt functional “National Innovation and Startup Policy for students and faculties” in the CURAJ
  • To create a vibrant local innovation ecosystem
  • Start-up supporting Mechanism in HEIs
  • Prepare institute for Atal Ranking of Institutions on Innovation Achievements Framework
  • Establish Function Ecosystem for Scouting Ideas and Pre-incubation of Ideas
  • To facilitate interaction between the teaching / student communities and grass-root innovators
  • Mentoring of grass-root innovators to facilitate the transfer of technology to the society

Members

Institutional Organization

President, IIC@CURAJ

Prof. Sanjib Kumar Panda

Prof. Sanjib Kumar Panda is a renowned plant molecular biologist with more than 25 years of teaching and research experience in Central Universities and abroad. He is among the top 2 % Scientists  in the world as published by the Stanford University  researchers. He has guided numerous students for doctoral and post doctoral research and has successfully implemented more than 20 National and International projects of which the recent addition of DBT Builder  project to CURAJ  is one to cite.  He has been visiting and adjunct professor to several Universities in Japan, Europe, USA, Indonesia etc. He has 1 patent application published and in process.

Convenor, IIC@CURAJ

Dr. Akhil Agrawal

Dr. Akhil Agrawal is involved in development of novel solution for the oil and gas industry. He has developed a novel formulation for oil recovery from marginal wells. The technology has been awarded at various forum like Rajasthan Science Congress. Dr. Agrawal’s focus is to develop state of art technologies for oil and gas sector and desert development. He has 2 patents application in process.

Member, IIC@CURAJ

Dr Kaisar Raza

Dr Kaisar Raza is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmacy with experience in technology development. His area of interest is the development of nanotechnology-based drug delivery products. He has 03 patents and numerous quality publications. He has also bagged international awards like AAPS QbD and Product Performance Award and national awards like ICMR-Shakuntala Amir Chand Prize.

Member, IIC@CURAJ

Dr. Tarun Kumar Bhatt

Dr. Tarun Kumar Bhatt has been working in Dept of Biotechnology at Central University of Rajasthan for the last 11 years. Dr. Bhatt could fetch several research projects from various funding agencies of the Country and has been working in the field of Molecular Parasitology. The patent application of the novel anti-malarial drugs is under process from his lab.

Member, IIC@CURAJ

Dr. Subrat Kumar Panda

Dr. Subrat Kumar Panda did his Ph.D in Atmospheric Science from Center for Atmospheric Science at IIT Delhi, New Delhi.  His research interest focuses on Regional Climate Modelling, Snow and Monsoon studies and High Performance Computing. His research work has led to many publications in peer review and international journals of high impact factors.

Member, IIC@CURAJ

Dr. Ved Prakash

Dr. Ved Prakash is Assistant Professor in the Department of English. He is coordinating the social media activities of the IIC@CURAJ

Functions of IIC@CURAJ

  • To conduct various innovation and entrepreneurship-related activities prescribed by Central MIC in time bound fashion
  • Identify and reward innovations and share success stories
  • Organize periodic workshops/ seminars/ interactions with entrepreneurs, investors, professionals and create a mentor pool for student innovators
  • Network with peers and national entrepreneurship development organizations
  • Create an Institution’s Innovation portal to highlight innovative projects carried out by institution’s faculty and students
  • Organize Hackathons, idea competition, mini-challenges etc. with the involvement of industries

Highlights of Few Activities Conducted in 2020-21

Calendar of Activities (2021- 2022)

Resolutions for 2021-22  (Quarter 1 and 2 Merged)

Activity

Coordinators

Tentative week for the activity

Entrepreneurship and Innovation as Career Opportunity

Dr. Akhil Agrawal and Dr. Kaisar Raza

Dec 1-7, 2021

My story- Motivation Session by Successful Entrepreneur/Start-up Founder

Dr. Subrat Kumar Panda and Dr. Tarun K Bhatt

Dec 1-7, 2021

Design Thinking, Critical Thinking and Innovation Design”

Prof. Sanjib K Panda, Dr. Kaisar Raza and Dr. Ved Prakash

Dec 8-14, 2021

Process and Innovation Development and TRL and Commercialization of Lab Technologies and Tech Transfer

Dr. Akhil Agrawal and Dr. Kaisar Raza

Dec 15-21, 2021

Exposure to Field Visit for Problem Identification. The identified place was Tilonia Market

Dr. Ved Prakash and Dr. Tarun K Bhatt

Dec 21-24, 2021

Field/Exposure Visit to Preincubation Unit, identified as IIT Jodhpur

Dr. Akhil Agrawal and Dr. Kaisar Raza

To be fixed upon approval from IIT Jodhpur

Pitching Event for Proof-of-Concept Development at the University Level

Team IIC@CURAJ

To be fixed upon approval from experts

Contact Us

Prof. Sanjib Kumar Panda
President, IIC@CURAJ, Department of Biochemistry
Email: sanjib.panda@curaj.ac.in

 

Dr. Akhil Agrawal
Convenor, IIC@CURAJ, Department of Microbiology
Email: iic@curaj.ac.in