As part of Atmanirbhar Bharat, IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Tuesday launched the ₹4.3 Cr ‘Swadeshi Microprocessor Challenge’ on the lines of the Aatmanirbhar Bharat App Innovation challenge, which concluded earlier this month. CaptionPlus, Meme Chat and FTC Talent – mobile applications — were adjudged as winners in entertainment category under Atma Nirbhar Bharat App Innovation Challenge followed by Logically and IsEqualTo in news and Hitwicket Superstars, ScarFall and WCC2 in games categories respectively. These are Made-in-India mobile applications among 24 which have been declared as winners.
He called startups and innovators, in an official statement, to develop various electronic and technological products. The statement read: “This initiative is aimed at not only meeting India’s future requirements of strategic and industrial sectors but also has the potential to mitigate the issues of security, licensing, technology obsolescence and most crucially cutting dependency on imports.”
This challenge is to be conducted over 10 months, and the winners will be offered ₹4.3 crores throughout the course of implementation of the project. It will also incubate the team as a startup and provide financial support.
From the entries, 100 semi-finalists will get an opportunity to get a grant of ₹1 Cr, while 25 finalists will win a total ₹1 Cr. The top 10 teams entering the finale will get seed funding worth ₹2.3 Cr and one-year incubation support.
This is yet another attempt by the government under the Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative, which is aimed at promoting startups to boost participation in key focus areas.