Background

It is rightly said that “everything begins with an idea.” Henry Ford says, “the air is full of ideas. They are knocking you in the head all the time. You only have to know what you want, then forget it, and go about your business. Suddenly, the idea will come through. It was there all the time.” In fact, the ideas are continuously generated in our mind. Initially most of the ideas seem to be foolish and absurd. Idea leads to innovation and innovation paves the way for growth and progress of an individual, society, nation and the world. Therefore, there is a need to exploit the power of idea and to promote the culture of innovation among the people. According to Albert Einstein, “If at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it.” For promoting the culture of innovation, it is imperative to provide a conducive environment. Roosevelt says, “Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events and small mind discuss people. Discussing ideas itself indicates the greatness of the minds. Thus, the students coming up with any kind of new and innovative idea should be encouraged and be discussed regularly on a platform.

During the last one decade, innovation has emerged as a key driver in socio-economic growth all over the world. Technological innovations have revolutionized in almost all walks of our life. Recognizing its importance, the government of India has also taken a number of initiatives towards strengthening the innovation ecosystem and promoting the innovations in different sectors. In fact, India is now, rapidly marching to become a global innovation hub. Though, a number of innovations are being done in different sectors, but the information about such innovations is not percolating down to the people, particularly in the remote areas. Great scientist and former President of India Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam had also advocated to create an innovatively empowered society. Under ‘Startup India’ scheme of the Govt. of India, our Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has also resolved to make 10 lakh students as successful innovators. Recently, the HRD Minister Prakash Javdekar ha also stressed on innovation and research at all levels. NITI Ayog has started a nationwide scheme named as Atal tinkering Labs in selected schools for encouraging innovation at school level.

What is in Innovate India?

Each issue of the magazine includes conceptual articles and research papers on fundamentals of innovation and case studies on product & process innovation in the field of agriculture, rural development, industry, education, technology, politics, society, environment, business and management, etc. It will also include articles and papers on entrepreneurial innovations, startups, indigenous & grass root innovations like Jugad; idea factory, out of the box solutions, innovators-our path finders, news on innovations, book reviews on innovation and reviews of research studies & papers on innovation, etc. As per our knowledge, there is no such magazine and journal in India which focuses exclusively on innovation and related aspects. We hope that this unique publication will itself be an innovation and it will help in promoting the culture of innovation in India. The inaugural issue of the magazine/journal was dedicated to the promotor of creativity and innovation our former President Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam.