NITI Aayog/Education/GSII/Science and Technology/GSIII
Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog & KidEx collaborate to promote innovation & entrepreneurship

What's the NEWS

• Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog announced partnership with KidEx Venture Private Limited to leverage KidEx's existing technology platform "IKIGAI" to host AIM's flagship programs "Tinkerpreneur", "ATL Marathon" and other similar ATL related challenges.

• The programs will be available to 1 Crore+ school students on the AIM network across India.
• These programs would be accessible to every student affiliated with ATL's network of schools in a digital, convenient manner at zero cost.
• Over a two-year timeframe, AIM & KidEx will outreach at least 10 Lakhs+ young learners & enable them to get exposure to AIM proprietary programs on Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
• KidEx shall be adopting 100 schools under Atal Tinkering Labs (ATL) initiative.
• KidEx shall be offering free licenses for company's flagship products for implementation of National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 to these 100 schools.
• Launched in 2020, KidEx's flagship product aims at enabling holistic development of children through experiential learning of age-appropriate activities and discovery of innate potential of children.
• The partnership's first engagement will go live on 1 May 2022 with AIM Bootcamp, ATL Tinkerpreneur for students of 9600+ schools.
• The event is a 9-week virtual bootcamp to equip students with 21st century digital and entrepreneurship skills.
• The event is available for free for students of ATL network schools in Std. VI-XII.

• KidEx is a Startup India recognized company, started by alumni of IIT Kharagpur & IIM Calcutta, working on improving holistic development of each & every child, through extracurriculars & real life skill learning programs.
• The company's flagship product includes "National All Rounder Championship" & "Age Appropriate Holistic Development Report Card".

• Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) is Government of India's flagship initiative to create and promote a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship across the length and breadth of our country.
• AIM's objective is to develop new programmes and policies for fostering innovation in different sectors of the economy, provide platforms and collaboration opportunities for different stakeholders, and create an umbrella structure to oversee the innovation & entrepreneurship ecosystem of the country.

• Atal Tinkering Labs-Creating problem-solving mindset across schools in India.
• Atal Incubation Centers-Fostering world class start-ups and adding a new dimension to the incubator model.
• Atal New India Challenges-Fostering product innovations and aligning them to the needs of various sectors/ministries.
• Mentor India Campaign- A national Mentor network in collaboration with public sector, corporates and institutions, to support all the initiatives of the mission.
• Atal Community Innovation Centre- To stimulate community centric innovation and ideas in the unserved /underserved regions of the country including Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.
• ARISE-To stimulate innovation and research in the MSME industry.

• In ATLs, students of class 6th to 12th acquire a problem-solving attitude, develop innovative solutions leveraging technologies like 3D printers, robotics, miniaturised electronics, IOT and programming and DIY kits, with support from teachers and mentors.

• Ex DHARMA GUARDIAN-2022, an annual exercise between Indian Army and Japanese Ground Self Defence Force culminated on 10 March 2022
• The intense joint military training, provided an unique opportunity of achieving synergy between Armed Forces of both the Nations which is focused towards strengthening the timeless bonds of India - Japan friendship.
• The exercise also provided a platform for professional and cultural learning as well as social interactions which in-turn broadened their horizon towards knowledge and cooperation aiming towards co-existence as one in the Indo-Pacific Region.

• Union Minister for MSME launched the MSME Innovative Scheme (Incubation, Design and IPR) along with the MSME IDEA HACKATHON 2022.

• It will promote and support untapped creativity of MSME sector .
• It will act as a hub for innovation activities facilitating and guiding development of ideas into viable business proposition
• It is a holistic approach to unify, synergize and converge 3 sub-components and interventions with a single purpose.
• MSME Innovative is a new concept for MSMEs with a combination of innovation in incubation, design intervention and by protecting IPR in a single mode approach
• It will create awareness amongst MSMEs about India's innovation and motivate them to become MSME Champions.
• This will act as a hub for innovation activities facilitating and guiding development of ideas into viable business proposition that can benefit society directly and can be marketed successfully.

• The primary objective of the scheme is to promote and support untapped creativity and to promote adoption of latest technologies in MSMEs
• Financial assistance up to Rs. 15 lakh per idea and up to Rs. 1.00 crore for relevant plant and machines will be provided.

• The objective of this component is to bring Indian manufacturing sector and Design expertise/ Design fraternity on to a common platform.
• It aims to provide expert advice and cost-effective solution on real time design problems for new product development, its continuous improvement and value addition in existing/new products.
• Financial assistance up to Rs. 40 lakh for design project and up to Rs. 2.5 lakh for student project will be provided.

• The objective of the scheme is to improve the IP culture in India with a view to enhance the awareness of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) amongst the MSMEs and to encourage creative intellectual endeavor in Indian economy.
• It also aims to take suitable measures for the protection of ideas, technological innovation and knowledge-driven business strategies developed by the MSMEs for their commercialization and effective utilization of IPR tools through IP Facilitation Centre.
• Financial assistance upto Rs. 5 lakh for Foreign Patent, Rs. 1.00 lakh Domestic Patent, Rs. 2.00 lakh for GI Registration, Rs. 15,000/- for Design Registration, Rs.10,000/- for Trademark in the form of reimbursement.

• The Department of Rural Development (DoRD) started new batches of women-centric courses across the country
• It is a focused batches for women candidates, thereby ensuring more participation from them.
• Women form 66 per cent of the total trained candidates under the RSETI programme.
• Till date, about 26.28 lakh women candidates have been trained since inception and about 18.7 lakh have been successfully settled.
• Under the RSETI scheme, 10 training courses out of the total 64 are exclusively for women candidates.

• It is a three-way partnership between the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD), GoI, State Governments and Sponsor Banks.
• The Banks are mandated to open at least one RSETI in their lead district to provide training to rural youth to take up self-employment/ entrepreneurship ventures.
• RSETI program runs with an approach of short-term training & long-term handholding of entrepreneurs.
• Rural poor youth between the age group of 18-45 years are eligible to join the training.
• The RSETIs have become established as pioneers in capturing the aspirations of the rural poor youth and turning them into profitable entrepreneurs by training them in the domain and entrepreneurial skills.
• The programme is currently being implemented in 28 States and 7 UTs with 585 functioning RSETIs sponsored by 23 leading Banks.

• Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), has signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with IIT Roorkee (IITR) for establishment of ‘BIS Standardization Chair Professor' at IIT Roorkee.
• This would be the first Standardization Chair established by BIS in an Institute for activities on Standardization and Conformity Assessment.

• The MoU would facilitate the research & development, teaching and training in the field of Standardization and Conformity Assessment in the country with focus on the areas of civil, electrical, mechanical, chemical, earthquake engineering, development and management of water resources and renewable energy projects, infrastructure development, medical biotechnology and nanotechnology, biotechnology, biomaterials, etc.
• This will also help in sensitizing students on how standards can encourage and facilitate innovation and will help in grooming students making them better prepared for their future professional challenges.

• UPI123Pay Reserve Bank of India launches (a) UPI for Feature Phones (UPI123pay) and (b) 24x7 Helpline for Digital Payments (DigiSaathi)

1. UPI123Pay - Option to make Unified Payments Interface (UPI) payments for feature phone users, and
2. DigiSaathi - a 24x7 Helpline to address the queries of digital payment users across products.

• App-based Functionality: An app would be installed on the feature phone through which several UPI functions, available on smartphones, will also be available on feature phones.
• Missed Call: The missed call facility will allow users to access their bank account and perform routine transactions such as receiving, transferring funds, regular purchases, bill payments, etc., by giving a missed call on the number displayed at the merchant outlet. The customer will receive an incoming call to authenticate the transaction by entering UPI PIN.
• Interactive Voice Response (IVR): Using the IVR option, users would be required to initiate a secured call from their feature phones to a predetermined IVR number and complete UPI on-boarding formalities to be able to start making financial transactions like money transfer, mobile recharge, EMI repayment, balance check, among others.
• Proximity Sound-based Payments: This uses sound waves to enable contactless, offline, and proximity data communication on any device.

• The 24x7 Helpline - ‘DigiSaathi' - provides a channel to obtain help on the entire gamut of digital payments.

• DigiSaathi will assist users with their queries on digital payments via website & chatbot facility and through toll-free calls where user can dial or call out the options / products for which the information is required.

What's the NEWS

• The Election Commission of India (ECI) hosted the virtual International Election Visitors Programme (IEVP) 2022 for Election Management Bodies (EMBs) from nearly 32 Countries and four international organizations.

• India has been hosting the International Election Visitors Programme (IEVP) since 2012 elections where International delegates are invited to visit the Polling stations and see the electoral processes in practice for themselves in person.
• IEVP Programme provides a platform for exchange of ideas and sharing of experiences, best practices and skills in the field of Electoral Management with various countries.
• The International Election Visitors Programme interactions in India and initiatives and learn from each other's experiences to adopt best practices suited for their specific requirements.
• Over 150 Delegates from nearly 32 countries across the world and 4 international organizations including International IDEA, International Foundation of Electoral Systems (IFES), Association of World Election Bodies (A-WEB) and Community of Democracies participated in IEVP 2022

• Union Minister for Panchayati Raj launched the new functionality developed wherein SMS will be rolled out to MPs and MLAs informing about the commencement of drone flying in their respective Constituency scheduled for survey under the SVAMITVA scheme.
• It has been launched in the presence of representatives from the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, Department of Science & Technology (DST), Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA), Survey of India (SoI), National Informatics Centre (NIC).
• This new functionality will help in wider outreach and transparency of the scheme.
• With the involvement of Elected Representatives (ER) it will provide confidence among the masses about scheme implementation.

• SVAMITVA, a Central Sector Scheme of Ministry of Panchayati Raj was nationally launched by the Prime Minister on National Panchayati Raj Day, 24th April 2021 after successful completion of pilot phase of scheme in 9 states.
• The scheme aims to provide the ‘record of rights' to village household owners in rural Abadi areas and issuance of Property cards.
• The Scheme is being implemented across the country in a phased manner over a period of five years (2020-2025) and would eventually cover all villages across the country by 2025.
• Scheme is achieving different milestone in its journey of saturating the scheme across the country, so far drone flying has been saturated in 108 districts across various States and Union Territories with many more on the verge of completion.
• The Scheme has proved to become crucial in the development of the Rural India.
• SVAMITVA provides Record of rights to the individuals against their property which can be used as financial asset for taking loans and other benefits.
• With the use of Modern Technology this scheme is being carried out to further benefit millions of rural property owners.

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