Page 38 - MSME BULLETIN 2022 NEW LAYOUT 19082022.indd

MSME & START-UP BULLETIN, VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1, AUGUST 2022

are undergoing due diligence and upon clearance they investments, and infl uencing innovation policy. To
shall be established. accomplish this objective a Vernacular Task Force
(VTF) in each language has been formed for creating
Atal New India Challenges the necessary resources as well as the ecosystem
The purpose is to create product and service activities.
innovations having national socio-economic impact,
AIM has launched over 24 such events in partnership VTF team will learn, contextualise, implement and
with five different ministries and departments of translate the design thinking and entrepreneurship
central government. There are 52 applicants that were concept in their respective languages. The team build,
shortlisted for grant-in-aid support and hand holding by cement and augment design thinking concepts in the
incubators/mentors of AIM out of 950+ applications scheduled 22 languages. The ecosystem will be opened
received. There are 13 innovations have been supported up to vernacular innovators with regular ecosystem
with grant-in-aid till date and others are undergoing due services.
diligence process.
There are train-the-trainers VTF sessions. Prime
ARISE-ANIC challengers partners are: eco-system builders, knowledge partners,
Atal Research and Innovation for Small implementation partners to work cohesively.
Enterprises (ARISE)-Atal New India Challenge (ANIC)
programme is a national initiative to promote research Strategic campaigns
and innovation thereby increase competitiveness of One of such events is AIM-Incubator Capabilities
country’s startups and Micro, Small and Medium enhancement for a Robust Ecosystem for high
Enterprises (MSMEs). In order to promote innovation performing Startups (iCRESt)
in a phased manner in the MSME/Startup sector AIM
has launched 15 challenges along with partnership of AIM over the last few years, has created a network
Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs; Ministry of of incubators that energise the innovation value chain in
Health and Family Welfare; Indian Space Research the country. Within this ecosystem, AIM is conscious
Organisation; Ministry of Defence and Ministry of of the team related challenges faced by incubators as
Food Processing Industries. The purpose is to improve they strive to produce viable, successful businesses.
research capabilities in the startup and MSME eco Keeping this in mind, AIM, designed iCRESt - a fi rst
system. As part of this initiative, deserving ideas will of its kind, remotely conducted, programme that aims
be converted to viable innovative prototypes followed to become a growth hack for incubators as they strive
by product development and commercial deployment. to become #WorldClassIncubators and reach greater
There are 160 applicants have been shortlisted and are heights.
currently undergoing evaluations.
For this programme, AIM has joined hands with
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Wadhwani
Mentor of Change (Mentorship and partnerships
– with public, private sector, NGOs, academia, Foundation – organisations that can lend credible
institutions) support and expertise in the entrepreneurship and
innovation space. These partnerships provides global
For the purpose of enabling all the initiatives expertise and showcase proven best practices to the
to succeed AIM has launched one of the largest AIM’s incubator network.
mentor engagement and management programme
“Mentor India – The Mentors of Change”. There are It has been designed to enable the incubation
over 10000+ registrations nationwide on the AIM ecosystem and act as a growth hack for AIM’s Atal
INNONET portal with 4000+ of them allocated to and Established incubators across the country. Under
ATLs and AICs. the initiative, the AIM’s incubators are set to be
upskilled and provided requisite support to foster the
Vernacular Innovation Program (VIP) incubation enterprise economy, which will help them
This is an initiative of the AIM, NITI Aayog, targeted to signifi cantly enhance their performance. AIM will
at decoupling creative expression from the language enable incubators and their teams to gain deep insights
of transaction in country’s innovation ecosystem. about incubation and acceleration, learn about best
This is designed to lower the language barrier for practices of about 200 incubators and accelerators
vernacular innovators when learning design thinking globally, and use tools, templates, and frameworks
and entrepreneurship, accessing markets, attracting to close the existing gaps and uncover the magic

38 The Institute of Cost Accountants of India