Innovation and Invention—the AIMS way

Verdancy is the first thing you notice at AIMS—Acharya Institute of Management and Sciences, filled with canopies of climbers and shady trees. As we move inside we see the theme Innovating for India everywhere around, on charts and thermocol cut-outs of India brightly coloured and decorated. We see huge placards of NEN E-Week and Innovating for India in the lawns and an industrious volunteer arranging a few letters which have fallen off against the wind. 
 
We can sense a lot of hustle bustle as we head into the Boardroom of the AIMS campus where the day’s agenda is being chalked out and discussed with the volunteers. Prof. Madhuri Sharma, amiable and full of action, who is the manager of AIMS E-Cells quickly briefs us about the schedule. In joins Prof. Ranganathan, loquacious and ecstatic about the E-Week, he tells us about their take on the theme, Innovating for India; how they have decided to interact entrepreneurs, research institutes such as IISc, entrepreneurship educators among others. Students step in and tell us their experiences, how they have been motivated and how they learnt about the various challenges and opportunities Entrepreneurship brings. 
 
Interestingly, it was from Prof. Ranganathan that we got most of the inputs; he clearly was the most enthusiastic of the lot! He is rapturous when he talks of Miraz and Vaishnavi, the former a current student and the latter a recent pass-out. These two have started their own ventures; Miraz is into website designing and Vaishnavi is in chocolate manufacturing. Pride is in his eyes when Prof. Ranganathan apprises us that only 5% of the small scale businesses in the country are registered and that his two students have finished the first process for registering. They have taken the step further where compeers usually dither, acting as beacons for the rest to follow. 
 
The Innovative healthy Breakfast Competition for AIMS Staff, I was very happy with this particular event. The yummy smells of freshly made dosas, idlies and pancakes make our stomachs grumble (we didn’t have any breakfast), we take a quick tour to avoid temptation of grabbing a bite. The items displayed include greenpeas halwa, cabbage dosa, biscuit cake, sprout salad, rice veg pancakes among others. 
 
One of the major events for the day is honoring Ms. Madhura Chatrapathy, an impressive lady, easily a force of nature, for the Kholapuri Chappal Innovation. She talked of innovation and invention, how they differ in definition and impact. Time constraint impeded us from catching the whole talk as we had to head to another college.