Niti Aayog ties-up with ISRO, CBSE launch 'Space Challenge' for students

Niti Aayog's Atal Innovation Mission in collaboration with ISRO and CBSE has launched 'Space Challenge' for school students across India, an official statement said on Friday.

This challenge has been designed for all the school students, mentors and teachers across the country who not only are associated with schools having Atal Tinkering Labs (ATL) labs but for all the non-ATL schools as well.

"Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), Niti Aayog in collaboration with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) successfully launched the ATL Space Challenge 2021 for all school students across the country," the statement said.

This is to ensure that students of classes 6 to 12 are given an open platform where they can innovate and enable themselves to solve digital age space technology problems, it added.

The ATL Space Challenge 2021 aligns with the World Space Week 2021 which is being observed from October 4-10 each year at the global level in order to celebrate the contributions of space science and technology.

AIM Mission Director Chintan Vaishnav said the aim of this challenge is to enable innovation among young school students to create something in space sector that will not only help them learn about the space but create something that the space programme can use itself.

Director Capacity Building Programme Office (ISRO) Sudhir Kumar said, "We take pride in collaborating with AIM and CBSE to launch this challenge where students can explore space with creative freedom."

CBSE Chairman Manoj Ahuja said that ATL space challenge 2021 has a huge potential in terms of allowing the children to come up with ideas and having an environment where they can see their ideas turning into a reality through the ecosystem that AIM, ISRO and CBSE are providing through this challenge.

Under the Atal Innovation Mission, the Aayog is running initiatives like Atal Incubation Centres and ATLs to promote entrepreneurship and innovation.