NITI Aayog, SAP Labs partner to boost Indian startup ecosystem

NITI Aayog has partnered with Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) and SAP Labs to promote digital literacy, innovation and entrepreneurship in India.

As part of the renewed Statement of Intent (SOI), SAP will conduct Training of Trainers under UnBox Tinkering for around 500 teachers in the next three years. The company aims to adopt 100 Atal Tinkering Laboratories and impart digital education to 30,000 students from the states of North East, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka.

Through this partnership, SAP and Atal Innovation Mission will facilitate coaching and mentoring students in advanced technology topics like electronics, mechatronics, Internet of Things, digital skills and coding. In addition to that, the partnership will foster the entrepreneurship ecosystem, augment incubation centres, enhance capacity development, and provide acceleration support to the youth entrepreneurs. Lastly, the partnership will include providing mentoring support to startups, ideas or incubation, and facilitate pilots with youth-led startups.

SAP, under the guidance of AIM, will create a platform for the existing 68 Atal Incubation Centers (AICs) across India. This platform will help curate and support the stakeholders' engagement and empower all incubators to connect better with their networks in an engaging way.

NITI Aayog said that SAP will select and enable select startups from AICs for further accelerator support and facilitate investment for up to five startups. To make this happen, SAP will conduct three idea challenges in Karnataka to curate and select up to 100 youth-led or social enterprises or ideas in the next three years. The idea challenge will support 25 youth entrepreneurs to incubate their ideas, leading to fostering socio-economic development and jobs in Karnataka.