Assam Don Bosco University, Guwahati and Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat are the two educational institutions of Assam which have been selected for setting up of Atal Incubation Centres under Atal Innovation Mission of Niti Aayog.
Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering and Administrative Officer, Assam Don Bosco University Vikramjit Kakati said that the government of India had set up the Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) at NITI Aayog to promote a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship in India.
The scheme was being implemented by NITI Aayog. “AIM intends to support the establishment of new incubation centres called Atal Incubation Centres (AICs) that would nurture innovative start-up businesses in their pursuit to become scalable and sustainable enterprises,” he said.
Kakati further said that the AICs would create world class incubation facilities across various parts of India with suitable physical infrastructure in terms of capital equipment and operating facilities, coupled with the availability of sectoral experts for mentoring the start-ups, business planning support, access to seed capital, industry partners, trainings and other relevant components required for encouraging innovative start-ups.
Moreover, AICs would be established in subject specific areas such as manufacturing, transport, energy, health, education, agriculture, water, sanitation, etc.
“These incubation centres in Assam will create a new generation of entrepreneurs and innovative start-ups which will lead to employment generation and overall development of the region,” Kakati said.
According to the provisions of the scheme AIM would provide a grant-in-aid of upto Rs 10 crore for a maximum period of 5 years to cover the capital and operational expenditures to establish the AIC.
A total of 2676 applications were received from all over India for scale up support of Existing Incubation Centres (EICs) and Atal Incubation Centres (AICs) in the Round-2 call for AIC/EIC applications by the Atal Innovation Mission (AIM).
Phase-1 comprises of a List-1 of 40 shortlisted applicants (5 EICs and 35 AICs). The first 31 of these 40 applicants who successfully comply with, within 120 days of date of announcement of the shortlist, all the mandatory compliances requirements for grant-in considerations including an onsite due diligence of readiness of the applicants facilities will be considered for Tranche-1 of the grant in aid disbursements.