Gandhian Young Technological Innovation Awards

• 06 Nov 2020

Why in News

Recently, the Union Minister of Science and Technology has given Gandhian Young Technological Innovation (GYTI) Awards to encourage technology students to move towards setting up biotechnology and other start-ups.

Key Points

• GYTI awards constitute two categories of awards:
  
  • Students Innovations for Advancement of Research Explorations-Gandhian Young Technological Innovation (SITARE-GYTI):
    
    • Given To: Every year to the most promising technologies developed by the students in life sciences, biotechnology, agriculture, medical devices, etc.
    • Given By: The Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), a public sector enterprise, set up by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT).
  • Society for Research and Initiatives for Sustainable Technological Innovations-Gandhian Young Technological Innovation (SRISTI-GYTI):
    
    • Given To: Every year to students in other engineering disciplines except for the ones covered by SITARE-GYTI.
    • Given By: Society for Research and Initiatives for Sustainable Technological Innovations (SRISTI), a developmental voluntary organisation.

Initiatives Aimed at Boosting Start-Ups

• Scientific Social Responsibility Policy:
  
  • Currently, the government is working on a Scientific Social Responsibility Policy with a focus on how efforts of scientists can benefit all sections of society.
• Biotechnology Ignition Grant Scheme:
  
  • It is the flagship programme of BIRAC, which provides support to young startups and entrepreneurial individuals.
  • It is the largest early-stage biotech funding programme in India with the funding grant of up to Rs. 5 million to best in class innovative ideas to build and refine the idea to proof-of-concept.
  • Aims:
    
    • Foster generation of ideas with commercialisation potential.
    • Upscale and validate proof of concept.
    • Encourage researchers to take technology closer to market through a start-up.
    • Stimulate enterprise formation.
• Encouraging Youth for Undertaking Innovative Research through Vibrant Acceleration (E-YUVA) Scheme:
  
  • It will engage a number of universities and technology institutes to serve as mentors, which will help to create a pan-India network to encourage a larger number of student entrepreneurs.
  • It aims to promote a culture of applied research and need-oriented (societal or industry) entrepreneurial innovation among young students and researchers.
  • It is implemented through E-YUVA Centres (EYCs) to inculcate entrepreneurial culture through fellowship, pre-incubation and mentoring support.
  • It provides support for students under the following two categories:
    
    • BIRAC’s Innovation Fellows (for postgraduates and above).
    • BIRAC’s E-Yuva Fellows (for undergraduate students).
• Biologically-inspired Resilient Autonomic Cloud (BioRAC) helps more and more students who try to set up start-ups and help India become Atmanirbhar (self-reliant).
  
  • BioRAC employs biologically inspired techniques and multi-level tunable redundancy techniques to increase attack and exploitation resilience in cloud computing, helping it tolerate and minimise the impact of novel cyber-attacks.

Source: PIB