Gujarat to have Children Innovation Centre; letter of intent signed between GU and UNICEF

Gandhinagar: Top 30 idea teams led by school students were felicitated by Chief Minister Vijay Rupani during the felicitation ceremony of Children’s Innovation Festival (CIF) organised at Swarnim Sankul 1, here today. The Chief Minister on this occasion announced the setting up of the Vikram Sarabhai Children Innovation Centre (VSCIC) to identify, nurture and promote children’s innovation in the state. As part of it a letter of intent was exchanged between Gujarat University and UNICEF at the event.

CIF was organized by Gujarat University Startup and Entrepreneurship Council (GUSEC), an incubation centre set up by Gujarat University in partnership with UNICEF. CIF initiative was conceptualized to identify, nurture and support children’s innovations in the state. As part of CIF, more than 480 teams applied from 25 districts of Gujarat, out of which 114 teams were selected for CIF Bootcamp for mentorship and capacity building on entrepreneurship held in the month of November last year in Ahmedabad.

The festival was exclusively for the school-going children aged under 18 years. The youngest of the participant was of 4th standard. Applications were received from 25+ districts from across the Gujarat state. Out of 114 teams, 30 top ideas were selected by a panel of jury which were felicitated at the event. The top 30 ideas are selected for the incubation support including access to government grants, free co-working space, mentorship, cloud credits over US$20,000 (roughly around Rs 14,00,000), networking access and other benefits through GUSEC and Gujarat University.

Supporters and partners of the initiative include the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India; Education Department, Government of Gujarat, GUJCOST, TiE Ahmedabad, Motwani Jadeja Family Foundation and PDPU Centre for Communication of Child Rights.

The ideas received for the festival belonged to different sectors like Artificial Intelligence, Energy conservation, Education, Agriculture, Environment and several others. Some of the innovative ideas were development of a device for Alzheimer patients to locate their misplaced things by using wireless network-based technology, designing a smart stick for blind people to caution them of any obstacles ahead in their paths, development of a smart sensor-based system to update the farmer of the actual conditions of the farm soil and many more.