In December 2018 Saint Mary’s College, Shillong has earned the distinction of being selected as one of the four educational institutions in Meghalaya and the only college in the state to be so selected by the Ministry of Innovation Council (MIC) under the Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD), Govt. of India, to encourage innovation among students. In accordance with that, the college set up an Institutional Innovation Council. (IIC) in December 2018, which is entrusted with the responsibility of grooming a batch of students in skill development in keeping with the goal of ‘Start up’ and ‘Stand up’ India through organizing various programmes. The Council, in it’s inaugural programme, on the 07.03.2019 organised a Workshop on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) wherein Dr. Juri B.Saikia, Research Officer, Tezpur University IPR Cell delivered a talk on the topic “Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) –An overview and it’s Legal aspects”. Dr. Saikia deliberated upon the basic concepts, four main pillars of IPR - Patents, Copyright, Trademarks and Design; the procedure of registration of IPR with the Government and other related issues. This was followed by an interaction with the faculty and the students. Earlier at the start of the programme, the Principal of the college, (Dr.) Sr. Mary Harriet expressed pride and satisfaction on being selected for IIC. She expressed the hope that such an initiative by the Central Government will go a long way in providing self-employment to women and empower them. She urged the students to be creative and innovative and to contribute to the society and country.