Atal Innovation Mission launches ‘AIM-iCREST’ program in partnership with Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

Niti Aayog’s Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) has launched AIM-iCREST- an incubator capabilities enhancement program for an ecosystem which will be focused on creating high performing startups.

The step has been taken to encourage and enable the holistic progress in the incubator ecosystem across India making it the first kind of initiative for advancing innovation at scale in the country.

Atal Innovation Mission has joined hands with Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Wadhwani Foundation who can lend credible support and expertise in entrepreneurship and the innovation space.

Objective:

AIM-iCREST has been designed to enable the incubation ecosystem and to act as a growth hack for AIM’s Atal and established incubators across India.

AIM’s incubators have been set to be upscaled and are provided with requisite support to foster the incubation enterprise economy, which will further help them to significantly enhance their performance.

It will additionally be complemented by providing training to the entrepreneurs, through the technology-driven platforms and processes.

Amid the pandemic, the effort will focus on supporting the start-up entrepreneurs in dissemination and knowledge creation as well as in developing a robust and active network.

A partnership between AIM and Gates Foundation:

Mission Director AIM, Ramanan Ramanathan, announced the partnership with Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Wadhwani Foundation while mentioning that India needs world-class incubators which will foster world-class startups leveraging the talent in our country.

He further informed that the program is also unique in its design as it is a combination of interactive practices in the field of incubation, enabling the incubators to further support sustainable and successful startups.

Deputy Director of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Anjani Bansal while commenting on the partnership mentioned that the foundation is thrilled to support the initiative of AIM and NITI to nurture an ecosystem that will enable development and will scale up innovations to solve the problems with far-reaching impact.

She further added that the large network of incubators under the AIM-iCREST program has enabled us to deliver this program at a scale which in particular is exciting.