Dr. Abhay Jere, who is donning the hat of the Chief Innovation Officer, Ministry of Education, Govt. of Indi, has been appointed as the vice-chairman of the AICTE. His tenure is for three years or 65years of age whichever is earlier.
An alumnus of Doctor Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University and Savitribai Phule Pune University, Dr Jere with education in pharmacy has been a scientist and worked in the domain of vaccines and healthcare before joining Life Sciences Domain as its vice-president. In 2018, he shifted to the Government sector.
Before joining as CIO in the ministry in August 2018, Dr. Jere was Chief Scientist- Life Sciences and R&D Head for Persistent Systems Ltd. As Chief Innovation Officer, Dr. Jere is responsible for promoting all innovation related initiatives in higher education institutions. He is also the brain and driving force behind MHRD’s Smart India Hackathon initiative which is now recognized as the world’s biggest open innovation model with participation from thousands of education institutions, lakhs of students and hundreds of industries. Dr. Jere is instrumental in conceptualizing the first of its kind Atal Innovation Ranking framework (ARIIA) for ranking all education institutions on innovation achievements. Through MHRD, Dr. Jere has now established Institution’s Innovation Councils (IIC) across 1000 institutions to facilitate creation of local innovation ecosystems in these institutions.Under guidance of Dr. Jere, MHRD is conceptualizing Student’s Startup policy, which will now allow students to start their own start-ups while studying. He has also conceptualized ‘India First Leadership Talk Series’, which is telecasted on Lok Sabha TV.
