Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad today launched “Chunauti”- Next Generation Startup Challenge Contest to further boost startups and software products with special focus on Tier-II towns of India. The government has earmarked a budget of Rs. 95.03 Crore over a period of three years for this programme. It aims to identify around 300 startups working in identified areas and provide them seed fund of upto Rs. 25 Lakh and other facilities

Under this challenge the Ministry of Electronics and IT will invite startups in the following areas of work:

1. Edu-Tech, Agri-Tech & Fin-Tech Solutions for masses
2. Supply Chain, Logistics & Transportation Management
3. Infrastructure & Remote monitoring
4. Medical Healthcare, Diagnostic, Preventive & Psychological Care
5. Jobs & Skilling, Linguistic tools & technologies

The startups selected through Chunauti will be provided various support from the Government through Software Technology Parks of India centers across India. They will get incubation facilities, mentorship, security testing facilities, access to venture capitalist funding, industry connect as well as advisories in legal, Human Resource (HR), IPR and Patent matters. Besides seed fund of upto Rs. 25 Lakh, the startups will also be provided cloud credits from leading cloud service providers. Start-ups who are in the ideation stage may be selected under the pre-incubation programme & mentored for up-to six months to evolve their business plan & solution around the proposed idea. Each intern (start-up under pre-incubation) will be paid Rs. 10,000/- per month upto a period of 6 months.

       Startups can apply by visiting the website of STPI or by clicking at the link https://innovate.stpinext.in/

Union Minister also laid foundation stone of the digital training and skilling center of National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology (NIELIT) at Muzaffarpur in Bihar. This center will be developed by Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India at a cost of Rs. 9.17 Crore. The government of Bihar has allocated one acre of land for this institution. This center will be equipped with the state of the art training facility with a digital laboratory. Different courses such as O level, CCC, BCC, Programming and multimedia training will be offered from this center.

Speaking at a virtual event in presence of Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said, “I urge the young, talented innovators of India to come forward and avail benefits of Chunauti challenge of Government and create new software products and app. This launch is a bold initiative under the clarion call for Aatma Nirbhar Bharat given by Prime Minister Narendra Modi”.

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RCJ/M