Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) is Government of India’s flagship initiative to promote a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship in the country. AIM’s objective is to develop new programmes and policies for fostering innovation in different sectors of the economy, provide platform and collaboration opportunities for different stakeholders, create awareness and create an umbrella structure to oversee innovation ecosystem of the country.
Five major initiatives taken in first year of establishment:
(1) Atal Tinkering Labs:
Background
With a vision to ‘Cultivate one Million children in India as Neoteric Innovators’, Atal Innovation Mission is establishing Atal Tinkering Laboratories (ATLs) in schools across India. The objective of this scheme is to foster curiosity, creativity and imagination in young minds; and inculcate skills such as design mindset, computational thinking, adaptive learning, physical computing etc.
Key Features of ATL
ATL is a work space where young minds can give shape to their ideas through hands on do-it-yourself mode; and learn innovation skills. Young children will get a chance to work with tools and equipment to understand the concepts of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math). ATL would contain educational and learning ‘do it yourself’ kits and equipment on – science, electronics, robotics, open source microcontroller boards, sensors and 3D printers and computers. Other desirable facilities include meeting rooms and video conferencing facility.
In order to foster inventiveness among students, ATL can conduct different activities ranging from regional and national level competitions, exhibitions, workshops on problem solving, designing and fabrication of products, lecture series etc. at periodic intervals.
Financial Support
AIM will provide grant-in-aid of Rs. 20 Lakh to each school that includes a one-time establishment cost of Rs. 10 lakh and operational expenses of Rs. 10 lakh for a maximum period of 5 years to each ATL.
Eligibility
Schools (minimum Grade VI - X) managed by Government, local body or private trusts/society to set up ATL.
(2) Atal Incubation Centre:
Background
AIM intends to support the establishment of new incubation centres called Atal Incubation Centres (AICs) that would nurture innovative start-up businesses in their pursuit to become scalable and sustainable enterprises. The AICs would create world class incubation facilities across various parts of India with suitable physical infrastructure in terms of capital equipment and operating facilities, coupled with the availability of sectoral experts for mentoring the start-ups, business planning support, access to seed capital, industry partners, trainings and other relevant components required for encouraging innovative start-ups. Moreover, AICs would be established in subject specific areas such as manufacturing, transport, energy, health, education, agriculture, water and sanitation etc.
Eligibility
Entities such as such as higher educational institutions, R&D institutes, corporate sector, alternative investment funds registered with SEBI, business accelerators, group of individuals, and individuals are eligible to apply.
Financial Support
AIM will provide a grant-in-aid of upto Rs. 10 crore for a maximum period of 5 years to cover the capital and operational expenditures to establish the AIC.
Requirements
The applicant would have to provide at least 10,000 sq. ft. of ready-to-use, built-up space, for the exclusive use of the AIC.
(3) Atal New India Challenge (ANIC):
One of Atal Innovation Mission’s primary goals is to incentivize innovation in areas critical to India’s growth. The innovative solutions in the areas like health, housing, hygiene, energy and water can impact directly on livelihood of all sections of society. Researchers have long talked of the ‘Valleys of Death’ at the early stage and commercialization stage in taking innovations to market. The Atal New India Challenge aims to address the second Commercialization Valley of Death, in which innovators are unable to access resources for piloting, testing, and market creation. Total of 24 challenges are launched in partnership with five different ministries and departments of central government. (http://aim.gov.in/atal-new-india-challenge.php)
The vision of ANIC is two-fold:
The scope of the program extends to developing an institutional mechanism and structure to channel potential innovative ideas for products and technologies from Startups and MSMEs on their own or along with R&D organizations, academic institutions and even individual innovators
(4) Mentor of Change Program
Mentor of Change Program is a strategic nation building initiative to engage leaders who can guide and mentor students in thousands of Atal Tinkering Labs and startups and incubators under the programs of Atal Innovation Mission across India. We are looking for leaders who can spend 1 to 2 hours every week in one or more such labs or with the startups/incubators and enable them to experience, learn and practice future skills such as design and computational thinking and inculcate the spark of innovation and entrepreneurship.
These labs are non-prescriptive by nature, and mentors are expected to be enablers rather than instructors.
Possible areas of contribution could be, but not limited to:
(5) Atal Community Innovation Center:
Atal Innovation Mission has taken this new initiative to support community innovation drive in the country. The program is directed to encourage the spirit of innovation through solution driven design thinking to serve the society. It will focus on undeserved/unserved regions of the country which at present lack a vibrant startup and innovation ecosystem.
Proposed Focus Areas: Underserved/unserved regions of Tier 1 / metro cities, Tier 2 & Tier 3 cities, Smart Cities, Aspirational districts, North-East, J&K and Rural and Tribal regions of India.
Purpose: Offer unique and incentivized solutions which will encourage students, researchers or any individual/group of individuals to ideate and design novel solutions. In order to meet this purpose, the program offers infrastructure for building innovation ecosystem in above mentioned locations. Following are the distinguishing features of the program:
| Eligible Academic Applicants | Eligible Non-Academic applicants |
|---|---|
| UGC and AICTE affiliated Universities / Colleges | Voluntary and other organizations having good experience and exposure in awareness and promotion of Science and Technology in the country. |
| Educational Institutions like ITIs & other technical diploma colleges |
Funding Mechanism:
The centers will be established either in PPP mode or with support of PSUs and other agencies. The maximum grant-in-aid support from AIM will be up to 2.5 crores subject following the compliance to program guidelines and contributing matching from the host institutions and their funding partner(s).
(6) Atal Research & Innovation for Small Enterprises (ARISE) (Coming Soon)
ARISE is an initiative to promote research, innovation and competitiveness of Indian startups and small enterprises including Micro, Small, and Medium enterprises. The program’s objective is to catalyze research, innovation, find solutions to the sectoral problems and subsequently trigger creation of new industrial sectors, through support of Central Government Ministries / Departments, who will become the first buyer of the solutions / products innovated under the ARISE program by start-ups and small enterprises.
ARISE will be a multi-phase, multi-sector, and multi-stakeholder program to identify, fund, guide, hand-hold, and procure from Indian startups and small enterprises. It aims to inculcate a culture and mindset of engaging and co-creating amongst the industry as well as the government, to improve India’s import substitution capabilities, develop export leadership in nation-critical sectors, and provide indigenous solutions for challenges in India.