Aimed at supporting and building a strong ecosystem for Indian Apps, MeitY in partnership with Atal Innovation Mission – Niti Aayog launched Digital India AatmaNirbhar Bharat App Innovation Challenge for Indian tech entrepreneurs and Startups.
Launching the challenge, Prime Minister Narendra Modi mentioned about the vibrant tech and start up ecosystem in the country and how the youngsters have excelled in providing tech solutions across various sectors. He said that there is a lot of enthusiasm among the start-up and tech ecosystem to innovate, develop and promote homegrown apps, adding that while the nation is working towards creating an Aatmanirbhar Bharat, it is a good opportunity to give direction and momentum to evolve apps which can satisfy our market as well as compete with the world.
Modi said that the challenge will give better visibility and clarity to existing apps to achieve their goals, It will also help in creating tech products to find solutions to tech conundrums with the help of mentorship, tech support and guidance during the entire life-cycle.
The challenge shall run in 2 tracks: Promotion of Existing Apps and Development of New Apps.
The focus of the Track 1 App Innovation Challenge, launched on Saturday is to identify the best Indian Apps that are already used by citizens and have the potential to scale and become world class Apps in their respective categories. This Innovation Challenge with various cash awards and incentives of featuring Apps on Leader Boards seeks to create an ecosystem where Indian entrepreneurs and Startups are incentivised to ideate, incubate, build, nurture and sustain Tech solutions that can serve not only citizens within India but also the world. The Mantra is to Make in India for India and the World. This shall be completed in a month.
Subsequent to this App Innovation Challenge, Government will also launch Track 2 of the AatmaNirbhar Bharat App Innovation Challenge that will seek to identify Indian start ups / entrepreneurs /companies and encourage them with ideation, incubation, prototyping and roll out of applications. This track will run for a longer course of a time, details of which shall be provided separately.
The AatmaNirbhar Bharat App Innovation Challenge Track 1 is being launched in the following 8 broad categories:
- Office Productivity & Work from Home
- Social Networking
- E-Learning
- Entertainment
- Health & Wellness
- Business including Agritech and Fin-tech
- News
There may be several sub categories within each category.
The Innovation Challenge will be available on innovate.mygov.in/app-challenge from 4th July 2020. The last date of submission of entries is 18th July 2020. The applicants need to apply online to submit their proposals by registering and logging on to the MyGov portal – www.mygov.in.
A specific Jury for each track with experts from Private Sector & Academia will evaluate the entries received. Shortlisted Apps will be given awards & will also feature on Leader boards for information of citizens. Government will also adopt suitable Apps, guide them to maturity and list on Government e-Marketplace (GeM).
Some of the Key Evaluation parameters will include Ease of use (UI/UX), Robustness, Security and Scalability
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