Dr. Vipin Kumar

Director and Chief Innovation Officer, National Innovation Foundation - India.

Dr. Vipin Kumar is Director and Chief Innovation Officer at the National Innovation Foundation – India (NIF), an institution of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India. His research and interest areas are incubation and promotion of inclusive and frugal innovations by way of value addition, intellectual property protection, business development, commercialization and developing of open-source technologies for the generation of employment opportunities for many. He incubated several innovative technologies which made their way to the domestic and international market. 

He has worked as a resource person in UNESCO’s course on Innovation Management and workshops for policymakers, and researchers to develop the road map for innovation incubation and promotion in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. The Festival of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (FINE), an annual national event jointly organized by NIF and DST under the aegis of the President’s House in India and INSPIRE Awards - MANAK a flagship programme implemented by NIF and DST which motivates millions of school students to pursue Science and a career in Research are amongst his most profound work areas in relation to India’s innovation and entrepreneurship eco-system. He is instrumental in building social and inclusive innovation-based relationships between India and the ASEAN Member States.

He has published over 100 research and review papers in the journals of national and international repute. He has helped in the coordination of the National Entrepreneurship Awards (NEA) of the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE), Govt of India as a lead partner.  He has served as the Chairperson/Member of various committees of the Union and State Governments as well as the Governing Board / Executive Committee Member of various prestigious Institutions. For over two decades of career, his leadership motivated common people to deliver Innovative Technologies to solve societal problems, generate stories of social transformations that made the country proud and destined to empower India’s STI journey through a dependable institutionalizing of Innovations.