North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU) organised ANUSANDHAN, a one-day sensitisation programme for first and second year research scholars of the university at Golden Jubilee Auditorium of the Shillong Campus on Wednesday.
The envisioned flagship activity organised by the University’s R&D Cell saw participation of scholars from 28 different departments of Shillong and Tura campus, stated a release. The event aimed to sensitise fresh research scholars on how a research problem can be oriented towards start-up and entrepreneurship ventures without going any extra mile, it stated.
Director General, North East Centre for Technology Application and Reach (NECTAR) AK Sharma; Vice-Chancellor (In-charge) of NEHU, professor DK Nayak; Director, Research & Development Cell, NEHU, professor SR Joshi; Professors Timir Tripath, Santosh Kumar, members of R & D Cell and faculties were also present at the event, it mentioned.
During the programme, professor SK Sharma enthused scholars the very idea of exploring their respective expertise and how it can be worked out as a utility product for society, it said. While, professor DK Nayak lauded the efforts of R&D Cell for initiating such inspirational activity in the university which will assist in channelizing the interest and focus of the scholars in research oriented societal problems and development of solutions, it noted.
Professor SR Joshi also highlighted the responsibilities and role of R&D Cell in the university and said that research should not only aim at publishing papers and dissertation or thesis writing, rather it needs to find means to translate for its applications in one form or the other, it said. He added that ANUSANDHAN is an initial step towards the same which aims to assist scholars in finding mentors and facilities for incubating their ideas, it stated. Professor Timir Tripathi also assured that the R&D cell is working sincerely to meet its objectives, it added.
During the first session, AK Sharma brought out the relevance of Industry-academia interaction and highlighted programs that NECTAR has floated to benefit students from North-East India, it said. He illustrated examples of the rich bioresources of the region and gave insights on how scholars can target areas which may have relevance to agriculture technology, climate change, fibers, biofertilizer, enzymes, energy sector etc., the release mentioned.
The second session conducted by Manager at BIONEST Incubator Facility at Institute of Advanced Study in Science and Technology (IASST) Guwahati, Tania Paul Das, stressed deep on the domain of Student Entrepreneurs and explained the importance of incubation center in entrepreneurship, facilities and fund required to develop entrepreneurship, it stated.
The last session consisted of a panel discussion led by the experts and university students selected from the East Zone to participate at the International Level ANVESHAN-2023 at University of Mumbai, it stated.
Lastly, a presentation on the mandate, role and planned activities of the R&D cell of NEHU, based on the suggestions made by the participating scholars was also made by Professor SR Joshi, it added.