NITI Aayog gives boost to tech governance through ‘Innovations for You’ initiative
Author: BI Bureau
New Delhi: NITI Aayog’s Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) has launched – Innovations for You – an attempt to showcase the success stories of Atal Innovation Mission’s Startups in different domains. These startups have worked to create new, disruptive and innovative products, services, and solutions that can pave a path for a sustainable future. The first edition of this book is focused on innovations in Health Care and soon other sectors shall follow.
As the country celebrates the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav – 75th year of Independence, Innovations for You series by Atal Innovation Mission captures how startups in various sectors are innovating to create a sustainable future in a post pandemic era. The book is a compilation of 45 health tech startups, incubated at Atal Incubation Centres spread across the country. These startups are leveraging frontier technologies such as AI, IoT, ICT and others to provide socially relevant solutions to problems like anaemia, malaria, dental care, mental health, neonatal and child care and monitoring human vitals, among others.
The digi-book was unveiled in the presence of Dr Rajiv Kumar, Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog, Dr V K Paul, Member Health, NITI Aayog, Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog, Dr Rakesh Sarwal, Additional Secretary (Health), NITI Aayog and Dr Chintan Vaishnav, Mission Director, Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog. The Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog accoladed the startups and their innovations by stating – “This book serves as an encouragement to upcoming entrepreneurs to work on the path of creativity and imagination to address some of India’s pressing challenges.”
Adding to the Vice Chairman, Dr Paul – Member Health, congratulated the AIM team and appreciated the efforts done in compilation of this book. He also commended the Atal Incubation Centres and their incubated startups by acknowledging their work and innovations done in the healthcare sector. The CEO, NITI Aayog said – “Innovations for You is an attempt to showcase how the young India is slowly but steadily moving towards becoming a world class leader. The Government of India with the Atal Innovation Mission is supporting the startups and young leaders to achieve their dreams.”
Dr Rakesh Sarwal, Additional Secretary (Health), NITI Aayog also appreciated the efforts of AIM team and acknowledged the work done by the startups in the field of health care innovations. Mission Director, Atal Innovation Mission – Dr Chintan Vaishnav, congratulated the 45 innovators mentioned in the book and emphasized on how the startups of today are working towards solving the HealthCare puzzle for a better tomorrow.
The digi-book series - Innovations for You by Atal Innovation Mission brings to you the best of innovations and entrepreneurs to the forefront. The subsequent editions of the book will focus on other emerging sectors like AgriTech, EduTech, Mobility and EV among others. The Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) is the Government of India’s flagship initiative to promote innovation and entrepreneurship culture in the country. AIM is mandated to create an umbrella structure to oversee the innovation ecosystem of the country and revolutionize the innovation ecosystem - touching upon the entire innovation life cycle through various programs. /BI/
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The exports of agricultural commodities from March to June 2020 shot up by 23.24 percent on-year to Rs 25,552.7 crores.
As the economy comes to a standstill amid the coronavirus-led lockdown, India’s agriculture sector has taken the baton of economic growth in its hands. The exports of agricultural commodities from March to June 2020 shot up by 23.24 percent on-year to Rs 25,552.7 crores, according to the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare. The government said that self-reliant agriculture is critical for the goal of an Atmanirbhar Bharat and for this, agricultural export is extremely important as besides earning foreign exchange for the country, the exports help farmers, producers, and exporters to take advantage of the wider international market and increase their income.
The surge in exports has also resulted in increased production in the farm sector by increasing coverage area and productivity. The share of India’s agricultural exports and imports in the world agriculture trade in 2017 was 2.27 percent and 1.90 percent, respectively. Even during the difficult time of pandemic lockdown, India took care not to disturb the world food supply chain and continued to export, the government said.
Ministry of Agriculture has prepared a comprehensive action plan for the promotion of Agri trade; the twofold approach focuses on boosting Agri Export with emphasis on value addition and action plan for Import Substitution. Recently, the Agriculture sector has witnessed a series of reforms, giving more choices to the farmers to sell their produce at competitive rates.
To mention a few, the Export strategy focuses on the export promotion of fast-evolving niche markets of Wellness food/ Health-conscious food/nutraceuticals, Development of “Brand India” in campaign mode to help penetration into new foreign markets and of new products which automatically translates into higher value realization, Gulf countries have been identified as focus destination to increase the market share which is a strong market for India though presently India caters to only 10-12% share of their total imports. A product-market matrix has been made containing a list of products of strength that could be expanded in new geographies and a list of known markets which can be introduced with newer products.
At the behest of the Department of Agricultural Cooperation & Farmers’ Welfare, Ministry of Agriculture, product-specific Export Promotion Forums have been created to lead Agri exports to new heights. Each Export Promotion Forum shall be having exporters of the related commodity as its members along with official members representing concerned Ministries/Departments of the Central and State Governments. Chairman APEDA shall be the chairman of each of these forums. The forums will meet at least once every two months, to discuss recommendations on issues pertaining to the export.
The recommendations of the forum will be placed in the product committee / Authority of APEDA. The Forum will keep in close contact with the concerned organization of the Ministry of Agriculture such as MIDH, Extension, NPPO, etc., DGFT, Ministry of Civil Aviation, MoFPI, etc. to further the interest of agricultural export.
