Innovations key to five trillion economy- Dr Jitendra Singh

New Delhi: Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology, Dr Jitendra Singh has emphasized the need for the industry to have a stake to ensure sustainable startups.

Addressing the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav of Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) organized by NITI Aayog titled, “Celebrating 75 years of India’s Innovation Journey” recently, he noted that Atal Innovation Mission has ignited the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship in schools and colleges thus motivating them to become confident self-employers. The Mission through its various programmes has been supporting more than 2,200 startups in all the major fields of innovation like health-tech, fin-tech, agri-tech, AI-ML, IoT and other sectors of public importance.

The Minister pointed out that starting from inculcating an innovative mindset in school children through Atal Tinkering Labs, to supporting startups and innovators through its programmes like Atal Incubation Centres, Atal Community Innovation Centres and ANIC challenges, AIM has been transforming the innovation and entrepreneurship landscape in the country holistically and comprehensively. The Mission, which recently completed its 6th year since inception, is complementary to the government’s vision of “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikaas, Sabka Prayas”.

Apart from referring to the Mentorship programme of DST, Dr Jitendra Singh said, Atal Tinkering Lab with the mantra of “Catch them Young” needs further development and wider reach to capture grassroots innovation. He recalled that in 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the 106th Indian Science Congress emphasised the importance of research by adding “Jai Anusandhan” to the famous slogan “Jai Jawaan, Jai Kisaan, Jai Vigyan”.

Dr Jitendra Singh pointed out that in the past few years, India has covered an appreciable distance in the innovation landscape and today India has more than 60,000 registered start-ups and around 90+ unicorns. He expressed hope that in the coming years, innovations will play a vital role in achieving the goal of India becoming a USD 5 trillion economy.

On the occasion, Rao Inderjit Singh, Union Minister of State for Statistics and Programme Implementation and Ministry of Planning ((Independent Charge), MoS Ministry of Corporate Affairs, and Dr Jitendra Singh jointly unveiled ‘75 events that transformed India’s Innovation Journey’. Dr S.Chandrasekhar, Secretary, Department of Science and Technology, said in his address that Government will hand-hold the path-breaking innovations and asked the startups to take up hard challenges.

The event also witnessed the launch of Atal New India Challenge by Dr Suman K Bery, Member & VC Designate, NITI Aayog, the launch of ATL Horses Stable Junior by Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog and ‘Innovations for You’ e-book by Prof. Ajay Kumar Sood, Principal Scientific Advisor to Government of India. Dr Chintan Vaishnav, MD, AIM presented a note on the Journey of the Atal Innovation Mission.