MeitY-NITI Aayog launches Digital India Aatmanirbhar Bharat App Innovation Challenge

According to the press release, the challenge which will be open for tech entrepreneurs and startups will help realise the vision of Prime Minister for building a Digital India.

The innovation challenge will have two tracks: the promotion of existing apps and the development of new apps.

The App Innovation Challenge will identify the best Indian apps that are already being used by citizens, and have the potential to scale and become world-class apps in their respective categories, the press release said.

The Aatmanirbhar Bharat App Innovation Challenge will have eight broad categories, including office productivity and work from home, social networking, e-learning, entertainment, health and wellness, agritech and fintech, and news and games.

The innovation challenge will provide various cash awards and incentives, where it seeks to create an ecosystem for Indian entrepreneurs and startups to ideate, incubate, build, nurture, and sustain technology solutions that can serve not only citizens within India but also the world. This will be completed in a month’s time.

According to the release, a specific jury for each track with experts from the private sector and academia will evaluate the entries received. Shortlisted apps will be given awards, and will also feature on Leader boards for information of citizens.

The government will also adopt suitable apps, guide them to maturity, and list on Government e-Marketplace (GeM).

The Indian government will seek to identify Indian startups/entrepreneurs/companies, and encourage them with ideation, incubation, prototyping, and roll-out of applications, for which the details will be provided separately. The details of the awards are available on the MyGov portal.