Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), NITI Aayog, in collaboration with Dell Technologies has launched Student Entrepreneurship Programme 2.0 (SEP 2.0) for young innovators of Atal Tinkering Labs (ATLs).
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SEP 2.0 will allow student innovators to work closely with Dell volunteers. They will receive mentor support; prototyping and testing support; end-user feedback; intellectual property registration and patenting of ideas, processes, and products; manufacturing support; as well as the launch support of the product in the market.
SEP 1.0 began in January 2019. Through a 10-month-long rigorous programme, the top 6 teams of ATL Marathon a nationwide contest where students identify community challenges and create grassroots innovations and solutions within their ATLs got a chance to transform their innovative prototypes into fully functioning products, which are now available in the market.
As many as 1500 innovations were submitted in the last season of ATL Marathon. After two rigorous rounds, 50 teams were selected for the Student Innovator Programme.
More than 75% of the winning teams were from tier-2 cities and/or rural areas, and more than 60% from government schools. Around 46% of the winning team students were girls.
The teams were then mentored by Atal Incubation Centres for months via the Student Innovator Programme 2.0. Consequently, the top eight teams were felicitated by President of India Ram Nath Kovind at Rashtrapati Bhawan on 14 November 2019. The top 8 will now take their prototypes to product through SEP 2.0.