The Minister for Electronics & IT, Communications and Law & Justice, Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad inaugurated the National Showcase and Felicitation Ceremony here today as a part of the National Challenge titled ‘Ideate for India - Creative Solutions using Technology,’ organised by Ministry of Electronics & IT. The top 50 team were selected based on their ideas and working prototype solutions. Speaking on the occasion, he called on the winner innovators to work towards making innovation a national movement. He said young India must inculcate a spirit of innovation and empowerment among under privileged youth and this movement can fulfill Prime Minister's dream of creating digital India having exemplary governance and leadership qualities.Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad said the Prime Minister has given a call for Five Trillion Dollar Indian Economy by 2024. “Our Ministry in interaction with Industry has identified trillion-dollar opportunity in digital space itself and has also carved out the areas where we need to introduce digital emerging technologies such Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Data Analytics, Geo-Spatial, Drone, Blockchain, 3D Printing, etc in a big way. The identified priority sectors are Agriculture, Health, Education, Logistics etc. Future Skills that is training our workforce on emerging technologies is also an important area,” he said.The government is promoting Start-ups in a significant way.
Ministry of Electronics and IT has recently initiated MeitY’s Start-up Hub programme, wherein support to 51 Incubators and 2,000 Technology Start-ups are envisaged.The main aim of the National Challenge was to give school students across the country an opportunity to translate their ideas to a working solution or prototype. The theme areas included healthcare services, education services, digital services, environment, women safety, traffic, infrastructure, agriculture, social welfare, disability and tourism. The Challenge was designed and launched by the National e-Governance Division, Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology in collaboration with Intel India, with support from the Department of School Education and Literacy (DoSE&L), and Ministry of Human Resource Development.The National Challenge was open to students of classes 6 - 12 all across the country. 1,33,661 students registered for this Challenge from 1,160 schools across India (both Government & Private schools) out of which 360 ideas were picked up. Four regional tech-creation boot camps were organized in North, West, South and East zones wherein students were trained by technology experts and mentors. The demonstrated prototypes included (1) Carbon Controller (device that sucks carbon monoxide from tailpipes of vehicles, (2) A smart automated BOT to maintain health, clean surface and deep water weeds in ponds and lakes, (3) Systems to preserve water, (4) Planting tree seeds using a drone) (5) health-related solutions (Diabetes monitoring App, ECG Monitoring App, Device to translate sign language into spoken words) and (6) Municipal related solutions (Smart Garbage Tank, Mosquito Eliminator, etc).