On 14th July 2020, Atal Innovation Mission(AIM), flagship initiative of NITI Aayog teamed with other Ministries and its partners, to organize the series of virtual COVID-19 Demo Days to find the potential startups with innovative COVID-19 solutions and provide support to develop and scale up the solutions.
The initiative was launched under the directions of Dr Vijay Raghavan, Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India and Dr Vinod Paul, Member Health of NITI Aayog.
Key partnership of the initiative:
Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), Department of Biotechnology (DBT); Department of Science and Technology (DST), Startup India, AGNIi, and other Ministries.
Virtual COVID-19 Demo Days:
i.More than 1000 startups from various categories with curative, preventive and assistive solutions for COVID-19 were put through 2 rounds of evaluation and more than 70 startups were shortlisted for the Virtual COVID-19 Demo Days.
ii.The support in funding, access to manufacturing abilities, supply chain and logistics, mentors and vendors will be provided to the shortlisted startups.
iii.R. Ramanan, Mission Director of AIM, held and led the nine Demo Days which included Medical Devices, PPE, Sanitation and Technology solutions.
iv.The organisers of the Demo Days supported the startups with approval and testing requirements and provided access to markets and buyers.
v.They also helped them with the registration on portals like Government e-Marketplace(GeM).
Results of Virtual COVID-19 Demo Days:
i.More than 60 startups are preparing for immediate launch of products related to COVID-19 solutions with the support of AIM and DST.
ii.More than 340 connections involving 50 startups have been established between the startups and multiple investor groups and organisations.
About NITI Aayog:
Chairman– Narendra Modi (Prime Minister)
CEO– Amitabh Kant
Headquarters– New Delhi
