NITI Aayog Launches 500 Tinkering Labs for Schools and 100 Incubation Centres

NITI Aayog is inviting applications from eligible schools/ organisations and individuals to apply for the three major schemes under Atal Innovation Mission: (a) establishing tinkering laboratories in schools (b) establishing new incubation centres and (c) scaling-up established incubation centres.

To foster creativity and scientific temper in students, Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) will establish 500 Atal Tinkering Laboratories in schools. It will provide one time establishment grant-in-aid of Rs. 10 lakh for establishing Atal Tinkering Laboratories (ATL) in schools (grade VI - XII) across India. Further, an amount of Rs. 10.0 lakh would also be provided for each ATL over a period of 5 years for operational expenses of ATLs. Thus, an amount of Rs. 20 lakhs per Atal Tinkering Laboratory in each selected school will be spent. Young children will get a chance to work with tools and equipment to understand the concepts of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math). Competitions at regional and national scale will also be organised to showcase the innovations developed by the children.

AIM will also provide financial support to academic and non-academic institutions (companies/technology parks/group of individuals) to establish new incubation centres across India. These will be called Atal Incubation Centres (AIC). They will be established in subject specific areas such as manufacturing, transport, energy, health, education, agriculture, water and sanitation, etc. These incubation Centres will provide pre-incubation facilities, common infrastructure and services such as technology development assistance, networking and mentoring, funding access, training and development, business support services (entrepreneurship development, marketing, finance and accounting, research, legal, regulatory, etc.) to innovators and startup entrepreneurs for developing solutions. AIM's objective is to setup 100 AICs during 2016-17. AIM will provide a grant-in-aid of Rs. 10 crore for establishing a new AIC over a period of 5 years towards capital investment as well as operation and maintenance expenses.

AIM will also provide scale up support of Rs. 10 crore over a period of two years to established incubation centres for augmenting their capacity. They will be shortlisted on the basis of key performance indicators. Both these schemes will radically transform the start-up ecosystem in the country by creating a network of incubation centres of world-class standards.

The guidelines for the implementation of these schemes have been developed after multiple intensive stakeholders consultations. A competitive approach will be used for the selection of applicants for establishing the above facilities. Applicants desirous of participating in these schemes can refer to the Atal Innovation Mission guidelines on www.niti.gov.in and submit their applications online.

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