Indian Economy
Atal Community Innovation Centre
- 01 Aug 2019
- 3 min read
The Union Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas and Steel inaugurated the Atal Community Innovation Centre (ACIC) program, a new initiative under Atal Innovation Mission (AIM).
- The purpose of ACIC is to enable establishment of socially inclusive innovation ecosystem as well as to encourage the equitable distribution of necessary infrastructure for stimulating innovation across the country.
- The aim is to encourage the spirit of innovation in the country’s specific areas that lack the required infrastructure and facilitating innovation ecosystem.
- Coverage: In order to provide an environment conducive to support innovators across unserved /underserved regions in an equitable manner, the desired applicant for establishment of ACICs would be from the following focus areas:
- Tier-2, Tier-3 cities, Tribal areas, Rural areas
- Aspirational districts, North East (NE) region and cities of Jammu & Kashmir (J&K),
- Smart Cities identified by Government of India
- Unserved/underserved areas of Tier-1 / Metro cities
- Eligibility under the Program
- The eligible academic applicants are University Grants Commission (UGC) and the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) affiliated Universities / Colleges, educational institutions like ITIs & other technical diploma colleges.
- The eligible non-academic applicants are voluntary and other organizations having good experience and exposure in awareness and promotion of Science and Technology in the country.
- Finance Mechanism:
- Atal Innovation Mission under its ACIC program will consider applications for the grant in-aid support up to Rs. 2.5 Crore in multiple tranches over a maximum period of 5 years. This support would cover capital and operational expenditure of the proposed ACIC up to 50% of the total project cost. The remaining contribution has to be arranged / assured by applicant.
- An important objective of ACIC establishment is to evolve a Public Private Partnership (PPP) model with participation from the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds or other funding sources to support community education and build the innovation ecosystem.
- Expected function outcome of the ACIC
- Build capacity of the potential innovators through community engagement in innovation related events.
- Conduct events like Ideathons to encourage scouting solutions for addressing community challenges .
- Provide training and mentorship to entrepreneurs to groom their capacity to innovate.
- Assist the potential startups in unserved and underserved regions in creating a sustainable, scalable & profitable business model.
- Benefits:
- It will help in providing solutions to the problems that India is facing such as pollution, high fossil fuel import bill etc.
- It will play a major role towards establishing India as Innovation and Technology led Start-up nation and improve the ranking of India in Global Innovation Index.
