ICC Innovation Conclave Charts India’s Education Future at the Crossroads of Technology and Innovation
The Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) hosted the ICC Innovation Conclave in Kolkata, convened as a high-level platform bringing together government leaders, academic heads and national innovation champions to deliberate on the future of India’s education and skills ecosystem. The event featured distinguished speakers including Mr. Binod Kumar, Principal Secretary, School Education and Higher Education Department, Government of West Bengal; Mr. Satyam Roychowdhury, Chairman, ICC National Expert Committee on Higher Education & Training and Chancellor, Sister Nivedita University; Mr. Deepak Bagla, Mission Director, Atal Innovation Mission; Prof. Chiranjib Bhattacharjee, President, West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education and Vice Chancellor, Jadavpur University; and Prof. (Dr.) Anupam Basu, Raja Ramanna Chair Professor, Jadavpur University. The Conclave highlighted how rapid technological transformation, expanding innovation ecosystems and emerging skill imperatives are reshaping India’s learning landscape, underscoring the urgent need for an integrated, future-ready approach to education.
Speaking at the event, Mr. Binod Kumar, Principal Secretary, School Education and Higher Education Department, Government of West Bengal, said, “Under the leadership of the current government, the school education budget has risen from ₹829 crore in 2011 to more than ₹10,000 crore in 2024–25.” Officials described this dramatic rise as a structural shift that has enabled large-scale technology upgrades and modernisation across the education system.
Kumar said the gathering comes “at a critical moment when the need to align government, academia, industry and capital is essential for bridging the persistent skill gap that industry continues to identify among graduates and post-graduates.”
He added that the state’s long-term strategy is already taking shape. “Aligned with the National Education Policy, the State University Policy 2023 sets a clear 2035 vision focused on making West Bengal a leader in innovation. We have expanded ICT implementation across schools, introduced Atal Tinkering Labs to promote hands-on scientific learning, and deployed AI-driven smart classrooms with individual student clickers that ensure full participation, generate detailed learning datasets, and enable personalised instruction, assessment and homework design,” he said.
The state has broadened its global and industry partnerships, strengthening MoUs with the British Council and several foreign universities, while encouraging participation from industry and venture capital to fuel innovation-driven growth. With 11 private universities already operational and more awaiting notification, Kumar emphasised that West Bengal is shifting from regulatory oversight to a facilitative model aimed at positioning the state at the forefront of technology integration and future-ready human capital development.
Mr. Satyam Roychowdhury, Chairman of the ICC National Expert Committee on Higher Education & Training and Chancellor of Sister Nivedita University, said the ICC Innovation Conference 2025 has reinforced the need to place innovation at the centre of India’s education system. “Meaningful progress demands clarity of purpose, practical action and strong institutional support,” he said, adding that early exposure to innovation is now essential as India advances in digital governance, deep tech, space science and AI.
Highlighting India’s demographic advantage, he noted that 65% of the population is under 35 and nearly 300 million students are enrolled across school and higher education. “India is poised to become the world’s largest working-age population by 2030, but this opportunity comes with a 30% skills mismatch in critical domains such as AI, robotics, cybersecurity and sustainability,” he said, citing the Indian Employment Outlook 2025. While engineering and technology see high enrolment, “industry-ready competencies remain inadequate,” he added, referring to the Skill India Digital Dashboard 2024.
Roychowdhury stressed that curiosity, experimentation and hands-on learning must be embedded from school onward. “Innovation must start in classrooms and flow seamlessly through higher education and industry collaboration,” he said. He concluded that “To create a self-reliant and globally competitive workforce, education, skills and innovation must operate as a single national growth strategy.”
During the event, Mr. Deepak Bagla, Mission Director, Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), announced that AIM has achieved a historic milestone with its nationwide hackathon being recognised by Guinness World Records as the world’s largest. “The initiative witnessed 350,086 schools, 10,02,860 teachers and 25,91,112 students registering and submitting 293,821 ideas, marking an unprecedented scale of participation in India’s school-based innovation movement,” he said.
Bagla noted that AIM operates 10,000 innovation labs in schools, nearly half in government schools, and plans to add 50,000 more. It also supports 74 incubators across India, including 14 in smaller towns producing transformative “social unicorns.”
Highlighting India’s innovation shift driven by digital empowerment, he said, “India is entering a phase where innovation, inclusion and digital empowerment together will define our development trajectory. By 2047, this momentum positions India to emerge among the world’s top three superpowers and a global leader in innovation.”
He also emphasised MSMEs’ strategic role: “Over 350 components of the Chandrayaan mission were produced by MSMEs, enabling India to achieve the mission at one-tenth the global average cost.”
Prof. Chiranjib Bhattacharjee, President of the West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education and Vice Chancellor of Jadavpur University, said the university is undertaking “a comprehensive restructuring of its innovation ecosystem” aligned with national and state reforms.
He reported the establishment of a unified incubation centre under the Institute Innovation Council, consolidating all earlier innovation and start-up units. The centre supports students, teachers and schoolchildren with advanced facilities such as analytical laboratories and 3D printing infrastructure.
Aligned with NEP 2020 and the State Education Policy 2023, the university has introduced senior secondary courses in AI, data science, cybersecurity and AI applications in the humanities. Through the School Innovation Council and School Courage Programme, JU is strengthening early-stage innovation capacity for Classes XI and XII.
He highlighted the revival of the Industry–Institute Partnership Centre, a new lecture series featuring industry leaders and start-ups, and the university’s e-Summit which integrated school participation and included collaborations with students from South Africa.
Prof. (Dr.) Anupam Basu, Raja Ramanna Chair Professor at Jadavpur University and Honorary Professor at Sister Nivedita University, said Indian education is undergoing “a critical transition” as technology reshapes delivery systems and innovation becomes central to modern learning. Speaking on the theme “Education at the Crossroads of Innovation and Technology,” he emphasised that while technology has transformed pedagogy and access, “the more urgent challenge is understanding how innovation and education interact.”
Innovation, he said, is incorrectly seen as conflicting with traditional education, whereas “the two are fundamentally interdependent.” Innovation requires knowledge, skill and a strong cognitive base, and education must nurture observation, analytical ability, critical thinking and problem-solving.
He stressed that institutions must create supportive ecosystems—tinkering labs, interdisciplinary spaces, exploratory projects and iterative pedagogies because innovation progresses through repeated attempts and refinement. “Education enhances cognitive empowerment, and cognitive empowerment fuels innovation,” he said.
Prof. Basu concluded that India must design systems that balance knowledge, skill and creativity so that innovation becomes a natural, not imposed, outcome of education.
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