Dr. Abhay Jere is the Chief Innovation Officer, Ministry of HRD, Govt. of India. Before joining MHRD, 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..