The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday approved the continuation of the Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), till March 2023.
The AIM shall work on its intended target of creating an innovation culture and entrepreneurial ecosystem in the country. This will be done by AIM via its various programs.
What is Atal Innovation Mission?
Atal Innovation Mission is a scheme launched by the Union Government in 2015 to create and promote an ecosystem of innovation and entrepreneurship across India via interventions at schools, universities, research institutions, MSME, and industry levels.
The Mission has been set up under the NITI Aayog, in accordance with the Hon’ble Finance Minister’s declaration in the 2015 Budget Speech.
The AIM has focused on both infrastructure creation and institution building. As evident from these examples, the AIM has worked on integrating the innovation ecosystem both nationally and globally.
Atal Innovation Mission Targets
The intended targets that will be achieved by AIM include the following-
- Establishing 10000 Atal Tinkering Labs (ATLs),
- Establishing 101 Atal Incubation Centers (AICs),
- Establishing 50 Atal Community Innovation Centers (ACICs) and
- Supporting 200 startups via the Atal New India Challenges.
The total budgeted expenditure of Rs.2000+ crore shall be incurred in the process of the establishment and supporting the beneficiaries.
The AIM has created bilateral relations with various international agencies for building synergistic collaboration on innovation and entrepreneurship such as the AIM – SIRIUS Student Innovation exchange program with Russia, AIM – ICDK (Innovation Centre Denmark) Water Challenge with Denmark, and IACE (India Australian Circular Economy Hackathon) with Australia.
The AIMs played a pivotal role in the success of InSpreneur, an Innovation Startup Summit hosted between India and Singapore.
The AIM partnered with the Ministry of Defence to set up the Defence Innovation Organization which is fostering innovation as well as procurement in the defense sector.
Achievements of the Atal Innovation Mission
Over the past years, the AIM has worked to provide an institutional mechanism to integrate innovation activities across the country. Through its programs, it has brought innovation to lakhs of school children.
The AIM-supported startups have raised 2000+ Crores from the government and private equity investors and have created several thousand jobs.
The AIM has also executed several innovation challenges on topics of national interest.
Together, the programs of AIM cover 34 states and Union Territories with the goal of leveraging India’s demographic dividend by inspiring greater participation in the innovation ecosystem.
With the cabinet’s approval to continue, AIM assumes an even greater responsibility to create an inclusive innovation ecosystem where engaging in innovation and entrepreneurship gets increasingly easier.
