Cabinet approves continuation of Atal Innovation Mission till March 2028

The Cabinet on Monday approved the continuation of Niti Aayog's flagship initiative Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), with an enhanced scope of work and allocated budget of Rs 2,750 crore, till March 31, 2028.

According to an official statement, AIM 2.0 is a step towards Viksit Bharat that aims to expand, strengthen, and deepen India's already vibrant innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem.

The statement said while building on the accomplishments of AIM 1.0, such as Atal Tinkering Labs (ATL) and Atal Incubation Centers (AIC), AIM 2.0 marks a qualitative shift in the mission's approach.

"Whereas AIM 1.0 involved implementing programmes that built new innovation infrastructure to strengthen India's then-nascent ecosystem, AIM 2.0 involves piloting new initiatives designed to fill gaps in the ecosystem and scaling successes through central and state governments, industry, academia and community," it added.

AIM 2.0 is designed to strengthen India's innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem in three ways by increasing input, by improving the success rate or 'throughput', and by improving the quality of 'output', it noted.

With India at 39th rank on the Global Innovation Index and home to the world's third-largest startup ecosystem, the statement said the next phase of AIM 2.0 is expected to further enhance India's global competitiveness.

The continuation of AIM will directly contribute to creating better jobs, innovative products, and high-impact services across sectors, it added.

AIM 2.0 aims to break the language barrier through the Language Inclusive Program of Innovation (LIPI) and 30 vernacular innovation centres.

The statement said AIM 2.0's frontier programme will create customized templates for the innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystems of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), Ladakh, the North Eastern states (NE), aspirational districts and blocks where 15 per cent of India's citizens live.

"2,500 new ATLs will be created for template development," it added.