• The Atal Innovation Mission, in partnership with CSIRO, Australia, is inviting applications from startups and MSMEs from India and Australia for the Climate Smart Agritech cohort of the India Australia Rapid Innovation and Startup Expansion (RISE) Accelerator.

• The programme is designed to support businesses aiming for international expansion between the two countries. 

• The Climate Smart Agritech cohort of the RISE Accelerator will focus on startups and MSMEs with technologies and solutions that enhance agricultural productivity and resilience in the face of growing climate variability, resource scarcity and food insecurity.

• The programme is particularly interested in startups and MSMEs with solutions that prioritise farmer needs, priorities, and on-farm practices.      

• With the introduction of the Climate Smart Agritech cohort, the focus is now on agritech startups and MSMEs with solutions that enhance agricultural productivity and resilience in the face of growing environmental challenges.

India-Australia RISE Accelerator

• The RISE Accelerator programme, launched in 2023, has been instrumental in supporting startups and MSMEs in validating, adapting, and piloting their technologies for new markets.

• The India-Australia RISE Accelerator is delivered in partnership between CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency, and Atal Innovation Mission, the government of India’s flagship initiative to promote a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship.

• It provides support to startups and SMEs which are working on innovative technology and are considering overseas expansion between India and Australia.

• Initially the RISE Accelerator will focus on supporting startups working on environment and climate technologies, areas of importance to both India and Australia.

• Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is Australia’s premier science agency. It was established in 1916 as the Advisory Council of Science and Industry as a first step towards a ‘national laboratory’.

Atal Innovation Mission (AIM)

• Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), set up in 2016, is government’s flagship initiative to foster innovation and entrepreneurship in schools, colleges and society at large and promote a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship in the country.

• AIM has taken a holistic approach to ensure creation of a problem-solving innovative mindset in schools and creating an ecosystem of  entrepreneurship in universities, research institutions, private and MSME sector. 

• All the initiatives of AIM are currently monitored and managed systematically using real-time MIS systems and dynamic dashboards.

Major initiatives undertaken by AIM are:

• Establishment of Atal Tinkering Labs (ATL) in schools to create a problem-solving mindset in students between Classes 6-12. 

• ATL is a flagship initiative of AIM to nurture an innovative mindset amongst high school students in India. 

• ATLs encourage students to come up with out-of-the-box ideas. 

• The programme is designed to equip students with skills such as design thinking, critical thinking, computational thinking, and digital fabrication. 

• Under the scheme, grant-in-aid of up to Rs 20 lakh is provided to select schools to set up an Atal Tinkering Lab.

• Establishment of Atal Incubation Centres (AICs) in universities, institutions, and the private sector to foster world-class startups, as well as adding new dimensions of outcome-based scale-up and monitoring of existing incubator models. 

• AICs aim to foster the entrepreneurial spirit while creating a supportive ecosystem for startups and entrepreneurs in India. AIM has been tasked with establishing and supporting world-class incubators.

• Launch of Atal New India Challenges (ANICs) to foster product and service innovations in the country with national socio-economic impact and aligning them to the sectoral needs of various ministries/industry and with the Sustainable Development Goals. 

• ANIC is an initiative aimed towards selecting, supporting, and nurturing innovations based on advanced technologies in areas of national importance and social relevance, through a grant-based mechanism, while addressing bottlenecks due to which innovators are unable to access resources for piloting, testing, and market creation.

• Establishment of Atal Community Innovation Centres (ACICs) in the unserved/underserved regions of the country, including tier-2 and tier-3 cities and in the hinterland, to stimulate community-centric innovations and create local hubs of innovation and job creation. ACICs are a crucial step in building the budding startup ecosystem. 

• They not only support up-and-coming entrepreneurs but also provide them with linkages to the developed startup ecosystem, thus expediting their learning curve and stimulating faster growth. 

• AIM offers financial support through grants up to Rs 2.5 crore to an ACIC subject to a partner proving equal or greater matching funding.

• Launch of Applied Research and Innovation Challenges for Small Enterprises (ARISE-ANIC) to stimulate ‘Make in India’ research and innovations in the MSME ecosystem. 

• The objective is also to provide a steady stream of innovative products and solutions for which the central ministries/departments can become the potential first-buyers. 

• So far, AIM has identified 15 critical challenge statements with five ministries/departments.

• Establish a nationwide voluntary Mentors of Change network to support all the initiatives of AIM.

• Building strategic innovation partnerships with the public and private sectors and multinationals, and country-to-country partnerships to promote collaborations and cross-border innovation exchanges.

(The author is a trainer for Civil Services aspirants.)