Two-Day Innovation Workshop Empowers Odisha’s Higher Secondary Students to Transform Ideas into Enterprises

Bhubaneswar: Aiming to channel the creativity and entrepreneurial potential of higher secondary students, a two-day workshop titled “Journey of Mind to Market” was inaugurated today at the Krushi Bhawan Auditorium in Bhubaneswar. The event, organized by the Directorate of Higher Secondary Education (DHSE) under the Department of School and Mass Education, is being held in collaboration with the Ministry of Education’s Innovation Cell (MIC) and the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).

Subhashree Nanda, Additional Secretary, School and Mass Education Department, inaugurated the programme as the chief guest. In her address, she stated that such efforts would contribute significantly to building a “Viksit Odisha” by enabling young minds to innovate, lead and contribute to the state’s socio-economic growth. Other dignitaries present during the inaugural session included Raghuram R. Iyer, Director of DHSE; Smita Rout, SPD of Odisha Adarsha Vidyalayas (OAVs); Dr. Elangovan Kariappan, Assistant Innovation Director, MIC; and Dr. Jyoti Prakash Rath, Officer-in-Charge, Academics, DHSE.

The workshop brings together 164 participants, comprising 59 principals or senior-most teachers from PM Shri Vidyalayas, 60 Post Graduate Teachers from various Government Higher Secondary Schools, 30 PGTs from Odisha Adarsha Vidyalayas, and 15 student achievers from initiatives such as Odiapreneur and Hackathon Odisha.

The objective of the programme is to expose participants to critical areas of innovation such as design thinking, idea generation, entrepreneurship, product development, and intellectual property rights. Sessions during the workshop will also cover the fundamentals of patent filing, innovation commercialisation, and start-up development. Participants will engage with resource persons and startup founders to understand the journey from ideation to market readiness and the potential of school-level innovation to bring real-world impact.

In addition, national-level initiatives such as the Kalam Program for IP Literacy and Awareness (KAPILA), the School Innovation Council, and other school innovation support schemes will be discussed to encourage greater student participation and institutional support for grassroots innovation.

The event is expected to strengthen the culture of creativity and enterprise among students and educators and promote the development of practical solutions to local and global challenges emerging from Odisha’s classrooms.