NITI Aayog Grand Innovation Challenge

PHASE I: IDENTIFYING ‘GRAND CHALLENGES’ FACING INDIA’S DEVELOPMENT

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has, across forums, reiterated the importance of Innovation and Entrepreneurship for India’s Development. NITI Aayog is leading this key goalfor India by leading the Atal Innovation Mission (AIM). With the launch of AIM, NITI will provide fillip to theswelling Innovation potential in the country. Partnering with the best minds nationally and internationally, we will bring together experts in academics, technology, industry, entrepreneurship and research. This resource bounty will bemade available to innovative minds from across India to tap on.

The‘Grand Innovation Challenge’ is being launched by NITI Aayog, on the MyGov portal, to involve citizens at the very first stage in innovating for India’s development. We strongly believe in working together with the States, as Team India, and involving every citizen to ensure India progress, leaving no one behind.With a clear focus on the social sector, and India’s most vulnerable sections, we seek to involve citizens in crowd-sourcing ideas to address challenges facing India’s development.

In Phase I of the Grand Innovation Challenge, we want to gather from citizens the gamut of key challenges facing India, across areas significant for the country’s development. We want to know what issues you believe are critical for the nation to address, in order to develop its social sector. In the spirit of decentralized planning, we are asking people what are the pressing challenges India needs to work with on a priority basis.

In Phase II, based on a shortlist of the urgent challenges as suggested by citizens, we will seek innovative solutions to address the musing appropriate technology. Through this Grand Challenge, we encourage innovation, entrepreneurship & citizen-led solutions to problems. Throwing our weight entirely behind these challenges, NITI Aayog will ensure that the best, innovative solutions to pressing challenges receive full backing from the Government of India – from funding, mentoring, technical & academic support to scaling it up across the country and absorbing them in government schemes. These solutions should be specifically designed for India, be made in India, and adopted by Government of India to radically develop India.

A. PICK A SECTOR THAT MATTERS MOST TO YOU

Identify which one of the 14 sectors/areas mentioned below matters most to you. Tell us which area, you believe, needs to be addressed as a priority by India in order to ensure that most vulnerable, and maximum number of citizens, are best impacted.

1. Agriculture
2. Water
3. Sanitation
4. Environment
5. Health
6. Housing
7. Urban Poverty Alleviation
8. Education
9. Labour & Employment
10. Renewable Energy
11. Transport
12. Rural Development
13. Skill Development
14. Women & Child Development

B. IDENTIFY THE BIG CHALLENGE FACED IN THAT SECTOR

Based on the sector that you have identified, tell us what the big challenge India is currently facing in that particular sector.What precise issue needs to be addressed to ensure progress in the area? Explain in detail the one aspect that needs to be focused upon, so as to achieve maximum impact in implementing the goal.

The entries, for instance, need to be along these lines:

1. Sector – Health /Women and Child Development
Grand Challenge – Reducing Infant Mortality Rate and Maternal Mortality Rate by 2030.
This could be with the help of a Women Health Self-Assessment Device, which will help women self-assess their pre-conception health. Based on the assessment they may seek care from the local community health worker. The device should address the main risk factors of un-favourable pregnancy outcomes for mother and child.

2. Sector – Renewable Energy
Grand Challenge – Developing Low Cost and Improved Solar Cook Stoves. These stoves should be made with minimum cost so that they can be installed in all households using biomass/LPG and they should overcome the limitations of these existing models.

Entries need to precise about the particular challenge within each sector. We welcome entries in which identified challenges are accompanied by a feasible innovation/product/solution to address the issue.The innovation/product/solution should be sustainable, reduce costs and be scalable across the country. However, solutions are not mandatory at this stage. The entries should be submitted as pdf files, with the write-up not exceeding 500 words.

The last date for submitting entries is April 25, 2016.

RECOGNITION

At the end of PHASE I of the Grand Challenge, NITI Aayog will identify and acknowledge 10 most pressing challenges from among those suggested by the citizens of India.

Entries will first be shortlisted based on a poll. From them, top 10 challenges will be selected by a NITI Aayog panel.

The best 10 entries will receive certificates of acknowledgement from NITI Aayog. Furthermore, shortlisted candidates will be invited to NITI Aayog as special guests for a discussion on the Atal Innovation Mission, along with key policy makers of the Government of India.

GOING FORWARD

In PHASE II of the Grand Challenge, NITI Aayog will seek thorough, refined solutions for the shortlisted challenges. At this stage, detailed proposals will be sought on how the innovative solution/product can be developed, sustained, scaled up and adopted by the Government of India in its schemes across the country. The best solutions will be nurtured and brought to form by a network of world-class innovation hubs.Full support – academic, technological and economic – will be given by the NITI Aayog to upscale top class solutions by best innovators.