Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has proven through his tenure that he’s a big believer in the power of entrepreneurship. He has always encouraged startups by putting up incubators and now, even announcing the ‘Mad About Ideas’ contest. The CM has now called for establishment of ‘innovation and startup centres’ in educational institutions across the country.
While inaugurating the three-day 12th FICCI Higher Education Summit with the theme ‘Learn in India – Learn for The World’ at Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi, he said that Andhra Pradesh is the only state with an innovation and startup policy. He talked of the reforms that needed to be done in the educational sector – both in spirit and the practicality of the knowledge imparted. Andhra University and the University of California have joined hands to set up a centre for innovation.
He deems all the universities in AP as ‘smart campuses’ and acknowledges that there are five institutes of national importance here – the IIM in Visakhapatnam, IIT in Tirupati, NIT in Tadepalligudem, IIIT Kurnool and IISER in Tirupati. The FICCI is entering into two MoUs for the establishment of FICCI Centre for Excellence for grassroot initiatives, development in Amaravati and a National Knowledge Functional Hub at Sri Venkateswara University to ensure quality academics for the engineering students in the state.
European Union Director-General Martine Reicherts, Education Ministers from Botswana, Kyrgyzstan and Taiwan were amongst the delegates representing more than 55 countries including BRICS, Africa, West Asia, SAARC, CIS, Canada and the US at the summit.
