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.

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. Recently, he was also instrumental in conceiving a very unique MBA program in ‘Innovation and Entrepreneurship’ announced by All India Council for Technical education (AICTE)

Dr. Jere is instrumental in conceptualizing the first of its kind Atal Innovation Ranking framework (ARIIA) for ranking all education institutions on innovation achievements. .Dr. Jere is committed to popularizing the need for innovation and entrepreneurship amongst Indians, hence he routinely writes columns in renowned English and vernacular newspapers. He has also conceptualized ‘India First Leadership Talk Series’, which is telecasted on Lok Sabha TV.