Niti Aayog, in an effort to encourage innovation and promote scientific temper, will be providing Rs 10 crore to 100 new incubators and Rs 20 lakh to 500 tinkering labs in schools, under the Atal Innovation Mission (AIM).
For this, Niti Aayog has invited applications from eligible schools, organisations and individuals to apply for the three major schemes under Atal Innovation Mission, which includes:
- Establishing tinkering laboratories in schools
- Establishing new incubation centres
- Scaling-up established incubation centres.
Under the AIM, one-time establishment grant-in-aid of Rs 10 lakh for establishing Atal Tinkering Laboratories (ATL) in schools for VI to XII across India and another Rs 10 lakh for each lab over a period of five years for operational expenses would be given. Therefore, each school will receive Rs 20 lakh for tinkering labs.
The tinkering labs will be equipped with ‘do it yourself’ kits and instruments related to science, electronics, robotics, open source microcontroller boards, sensors, 3D printers and computers, along with infrastructures such as meeting rooms and video conferencing facility.
