Goa State Innovation Council (GSIC) has been set up to create a system to boost innovation performance in the State. The objective of the council is to drive the innovation agenda in the states and harness the core competencies, local talent, resources and capabilities to create new opportunities.
The council will not only support the State government to promote innovation in Goa, encourage young talent in local universities, colleges, medium and small scale industries and R&D institutes, map opportunities for innovation in the State, identify and reward talent in innovation and disseminate success stories, organise seminars, lectures, workshops on innovation, create the state innovation portal to educate and drive awareness or innovation but also provide input into the innovation roadmap 2016-2020 for Goa.
The council chaired by Jose Manuel Noronha has 11 distinguished members. The constitution of the council consists of a mix of people from academia, industry, government, management, chambers of commerce and other stakeholders.
“Innovation Coucil has been set up in Goa via a mandate given by the National Innovation Council and every state has to set up this to come out with a roadmap by 2020 on what are the various steps taken by the state government to inculcate a spirit of innovation and how we are able to encourage people by building a proper eco-system for the people engaged in this area,” said Mr Noronha.
The objective is to help all those, not necessarily only Goans, but also to those who would like to come up with their ideas, innovations and work out of this State to scale up. It will also help Goa to become an innovation hub in the country at a later stage. It is also likely to help generating jobs in a smaller way and would be a catalyst in improving quality of life in the State.
The council has met twice since its September last year and has chalked out a path to set up a secretariat at the Don Bosco College of Engineering at Margao, to which the government has agreed in principle.
The second objective of the council is to lay a roadmap for innovation in next three to four years and it is in process. “I guess it would be completed in another week and we are planning to meet once again by the end of May this year to take in forward,” said Mr Noronha.
Also, there is a plan to set up ‘Think Labs’ in about 10-15 schools in the State to help students of standard VIII to X to understand the basic principles of science. “We will give them small kits which cost barely Rs 30-40 each and it will help them understand principles of electricity, EMF etc. This could help them innovate and encourage them to set up start-ups at a later stage. It is a long-term plan,” added the chairman of the Goa State Innovation Council.
He added that we need to create an excellent eco-system in the State which will encourage even people from other states to come to Goa, ideate and generate patents.
Member Secretary of the GSIC, Levinson J Martins said, “The Council has been reconstituted and we had our second meeting recently and we are now trying to have a roadmap which should be completed soon. We want to ensure that it will have clarity on how the State will help start-ups. Also, it will help identify the young minds and innovative ideas. We have to be in tune with the requirement of the nation like the Skill India, Start-up India.”
Mangirish Salelkar, CEO and CoFounder of Umang Software Technologies said, “The students in Goa need to get enough exposure to what is going on in the world outside. What Goa lacks is skilled talent pool which is the main ingredient to drive innovation. The Goa State Innovation Council has some of the finest members from academia. I think the government needs to give them the needful support. This will help boost the Industry.”
