Atal New India Challenge 2.0 Launched

Context

Recently, Atal Innovation Mission launched the phase 1 of the 2nd edition of the Atal New India Challenge (ANIC 2.0).

• ANIC 1.0 was launched in 2018 for the clarion call to bring innovations and technologies relevant to the people.

About Atal New India Challenge (ANIC)

• Atal New India Challenge is a flagship program of Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog.
• The program aims to seek, select, support and nurture technology-based innovations that solve sectoral challenges of national importance and societal relevance.
• One of the primary goals of the ANIC program is to support innovations in areas critical to India’s development and growth – Education, Health, Water and Sanitation, Agriculture, Food Processing, Housing, Energy, Mobility, Space Application etc.
• The Atal New India Challenge aims to address the Commercialization Valley of Death – supporting innovators scale over the risks associated with access to resources for testing, piloting and market creation.
• ANIC solicits innovations from start-ups and MSMEs in the prototype stage and after a competitive process of selection supports them through to the commercialization stage over a course of 12 – 18 months with a funding of up to INR 1 crore along with other associated support from the AIM’s innovation ecosystem.

About Atal Innovation Mission (AIM)

• Launched by NITI aayog, AIM is the Government of India’s flagship initiative to promote a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship in the country.
• Objectives-
• To develop new programmes and policies for fostering innovation in different sectors of the economy, 
• To provide platform and collaboration opportunities for different stakeholders, 
• To create awareness and create an umbrella structure to oversee the innovation ecosystem of the country.

Few Major Initiatives

• Atal Tinkering Labs: Creating a problem-solving mindset across schools in India.
• Atal Incubation Centers: Fostering world-class startups and adding a new dimension to the incubator model.
• Atal New India Challenges: Fostering product innovations and aligning them to the needs of various sectors/ministries.
• Mentor India Campaign: A national mentor network in collaboration with the public sector, corporates and institutions.
• Atal Community Innovation Center: To stimulate community-centric innovation and ideas in the unserved /underserved regions including Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.
• Atal Research and Innovation for Small Enterprises (ARISE): To stimulate innovation and research in the MSME industry.