Short Takes / ACIC for innovation

The Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), the flagship initiative of NITI Aayog, launched the Atal Community Innovation Centre (ACIC) programme on July 31.

NITI Aayog vice-chairman Rajiv Kumar said the ACIC programme will be launched in 484 districts that are marked as unserved regions.

Kumar said the purpose of the ACIC programme is to encourage innovation through solution-driven design thinking with a view to serve society.

He said reducing the lab to land distance is one of the key objectives of Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) and the ACIC will help in further strengthening the mission to strengthen the entrepreneurial ecosystem of India.

What is ACIC?

ACIC is a new initiative of Atal Innovation Mission to support the community innovation drive in the country.

The programme is directed to encourage the spirit of innovation through solution-driven design thinking to serve society.

It will focus on underserved / unserved regions of the country which at present lack a vibrant startup and innovation ecosystem.

NITI Aayog will take the public-private partnership (PPP) route to ensure financial sustainability and participation of central agencies and PSUs to mobilise resources for running the programme.

The proposed focus areas of the programme are tier-2 and tier-3 cities, smart cities, aspirational districts, Northeast, Jammu & Kashmir, rural and tribal areas as well as unserved region of tier-1 / metro cities.

The maximum grant-in-aid support form AIM will be up to Rs 2.5 crore and a similar amount from the host institutions and funding partners.

Highlights of ACIC

* Enabling infrastructure for building innovation ecosystem in proposed areas.

* Community oriented approach to innovation by enabling solutions through advanced tinkering.

* Offer opportunities to innovators to ideate in areas of social importance.

* Capacity building of communities in evolving technologies and taking their solutions from ideation to prototype.

* Promoting design thinking process to spur innovation.

* Providing a framework to engage local industries to facilitate the offering of innovative solutions in their products, services and processes.

* PPP model to ensure financial sustainability and participation of central agencies and PSUs to mobilise resources for running the programme.

* Offer an opportunity for everyone to innovate, ideate and design impactful solutions, irrespective of their age.

* Talented students from ITIs will be offered an opportunity to display and build innovative solutions through ACIC.