The IMS Unison University had the inauguration of a two-day national e-conference titled ‘Invention, Innovation and Intrapreneurship’ on 12^th-13^th March, 2021. The beginning of the event was marked with a welcome note. The university is determined to contribute vehemently towards research and development irrespective of the ghastly pandemic that persists and has impacted the world to the entirety.

The introductory remark was given by Prof. (Dr.) Gautam Sinha, Vice-Chancellor (IUU) who threw light on the necessity of inventions and innovations to make our nation economically strengthened to accomplish 5 trillion-dollar economy by 2024. He highlighted to contributions made by countries namely China and South Korea who invest a considerable share of their GDP towards invention; nevertheless, our country can gear up for improvements through innovations. He ended his remark with his best wishes for the conference.

A welcome address was given by Prof. (Dr.) Kalyani Rangarajan, Conference Chair. She, overwhelmingly welcomed the key-note speakers, all participants and attendees. Further, she shared her valuable inputs pertaining to the conduct of the conference and also promulgated about the technical sessions that have been scheduled to be conducted in two days.

The Chief Guest of the conference, Prof. Rishikesh T. Krishnan, Director, Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, an eminent academician and distinguished professor of Strategy enlightened the participants during the conference. He re-iterated on the importance of start-ups in inducing innovations. He discussed some points referring to the historic aspects on start-ups. Further, he shared some excerpts from his enriching book titled ‘8 Steps to Innovation: From Jugaad to Systematic Innovation’. He laid emphasis on identification of the right problem for which a feasible solution can be designed, in other words, solution searching for a problem. According to him, one must be able to observe three components towards problem identification, i.e., feeling the Pain, sensing the Wave and seeing the Waste that act as useful triggers to find the right problem. He also highlighted the necessity of a market-driven process that plays a pivotal role in reducing risk and improving possibilities of success. He concluded his valuable delivery with ascertaining the relevance of experimentation to develop products and services matching the needs of customers and prospects.

A vote-of-thanks was proposed by Dr. P. G. Dangwal, Conference Co-chair where he expressed his gratitude towards Mr. Amit Aggarwal, Honourable Chairman-Board of Governors (IUU), Chief Guest Prof. Rishikesh T. Krishnan (Director-IIMB), key-note speaker Padmashree Prof. Anil Kumar Gupta, Founder and CEO (Honeybee Network) for their prolific words which depict the importance of invention, innovation and intrapreneurship towards achieving Aatma Nirbhar Bharat. He also thanked Prof. Gautam Sinha, Vice Chancellor (IUU), Prof. Ravikesh Srivastava, Pro-Vice Chancellor (IUU), Dr. Kalyani Rangarajan, Dean-School of Management for the meticulous structuring of the conference and collaborating the efforts of Conference Secretaries, Dr. Shikha Rana and Dr. Nishant Dublish and unwavering efforts made by the organising committee-members and supporting staff.