In news- Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), NITI Aayog, and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) announced a new partnership under the SAMRIDH initiative, recently.
About SAMRIDH initiative-
- This new partnership, leveraging AIM’s expertise in innovation and entrepreneurship, will enhance SAMRIDH’s efforts to leverage philanthropic capital, and public sector resources to offset barriers for commercial investments in small and medium healthcare enterprises to scale sustainable business solutions and innovations.
- This collaboration envisions to improve access to affordable and quality healthcare for vulnerable populations in tier-2 and tier-3 cities, and rural and tribal regions.
- Under this partnership, AIM and SAMRIDH have announced a Call for Proposals for healthcare innovators and entrepreneurs in India.
- In 2020, USAID, IPE Global, and stakeholders from the Indian government, academia, and the private sector developed the innovative SAMRIDH blended finance facility to combine public and philanthropic funds with commercial capital to create and rapidly scale market-based health solutions.
- The collaboration will focus on innovations across the healthcare landscape with the common goal to mount an effective response to the ongoing third wave of COVID-19 and build health system preparedness for future infectious disease outbreaks and health emergencies.
- Notably, there will be a focus on mental health solutions, with an emphasis on support for healthcare providers and patients recovering from adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Atal Innovation Mission (AIM)-
- It is the Government of India’s flagship initiative to promote a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship in the country.
- Atal Innovation Mission initiative is set up by the NITI Aayog to promote innovation and entrepreneurship.
- AIM’s objective is to develop new programmes and policies for fostering innovation in different sectors of the economy, provide platform and collaboration opportunities for different stakeholders, create awareness and create an umbrella structure to oversee the innovation ecosystem of the country.
Six major initiatives of AIM:
- 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 the public sector, corporates and institutions, to support all the initiatives of the mission.
- Atal Community Innovation Center– 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.
Source: PIB
