Additional Secretary of NITI Aayog Ramanathan Ramanan, who is also mission director of flagship programme Atal Innovation Mission, recently visited Kashmir to attend a conference at JKEDI.
In an interview with Greater Kashmir business editor INAM UL HAQ, Ramanan talks about the purpose of the AIM and different other initiatives undertaken by NITI Aayog to boost innovation and entrepreneurship.
Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) is the Government of India’s flagship initiative under NITI Aayog essentially to promote innovation and entrepreneurship across the country. It is a very holistic approach taken at school level, university level and industry level with the objective 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 above all create a flagship structure to oversee innovation ecosystem of the country.
Two core functions of the AIM are entrepreneurship promotion and innovation promotion by providing a platform to innovators and startups.
What are the different initiatives and schemes of NITI Aayog launched under Atal Innovation Mission?
There are four flagship schemes launched under AIM: Atal Tinkering Laboratory (ATL), Atal Incubation Center, Atal Vikas Challenge and Atal Grand Challenge, and then there are some other initiatives and sub-schemes as well, which include ‘mentor for change’, scale up support, tinkering marathon, awards, competitions etc.