Objective 

Salient features 

• To create and promote a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship
• To develop new programmes and policies for fostering innovation in different sectors of the economy
• Provide platforms and collaboration opportunities for different stakeholders
• Create an umbrella structure to oversee the innovation & entrepreneurship ecosystem of the country.
• Enhancing India’s global competitiveness.

• Implementing agency: NITI Aayog
• Implementation period:  Till March 31, 2028.
• AIM 2.0 is expected to further enhance India’s global competitiveness.
  • AIM 1.0 involved implementing programs that built new innovation infrastructure to strengthen India’s then nascent ecosystem
    • It was launched in 2016
    • AIM has created four programs to support these functions Atal Tinkering Labs, Atal Incubation Centres, Atal New India Challenges and Atal Grand Challenges and Mentor India
  • AIM 2.0 involves piloting new initiatives designed to fill gaps in the ecosystem and scaling successes through central and state governments, industry, academia and community. 

Ways to improve entrepreneurship ecosystem under the scheme

• Increasing input (i.e., ushering more innovators and entrepreneurs) through
  • The Language Inclusive Program of Innovation (LIPI): Building innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystems in India’s 22 scheduled languages for lowering entry barrier confronting innovators, entrepreneurs and investors who don’t speak English.
    • 30 Vernacular Innovation Centers will be established in existing incubators.
  • The Frontier Program:  Creating customized templates for the innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystems of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), Ladakh, the Northeastern states (NE), Aspirational Districts and Blocks.
    • 2500 new ATLs will be created for template development.
• Improving the success rate or ‘throughput’  (i.e., helping more startups succeed) through
  • The Human Capital Development Program: Develops professionals (managers, teachers, trainers) to sustain India's innovation ecosystem.
  • The Deep tech Reactor: Creating a research sandbox for testing ways of commercializing research-based deep tech startups that require significantly longer time and deeper investment to get to market. 
  • The State Innovation Mission (SIM): To assist states/UTs with building a strong innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem that focuses on their areas of strength.
    • SIM will be a component of the NITI Aayog’s State Support Mission.
  • The International Innovation Collaborations program: To take India’s innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem international. Four areas of intervention are identified
    • An Annual Global Tinkering Olympiad
    • Creation of 10 Bi-lateral, multilateral engagements with advanced nations
    • As a knowledge partner, helping the United Nation’s World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) spread the models of AIM and its programs (ATL, AIC) to the countries of the global south, and
    • Anchoring the Startup20 Engagement Group of the G20 for India.
• Improving the quality of ‘output’ (i.e., producing better jobs, products and services) through
  • The Industrial Accelerator program: To increase industry involvement in scaling-up advanced startups.
    • Minimum 10 Industry Accelerators in critical sectors will be created in Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode.
  • The Atal Sectoral Innovation Launch pads (ASIL) program: To build iDEX-like platforms in central ministries for integrating and procuring from startups in key industry sectors. 
    • Minimum 10 launchpads will be built across key ministries.