NITI Aayog’s Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) on Tuesday added 3,000 schools to Atal Tinkering Labs (ATL), its innovation-driven program for students to come up with new and creative ideas in the field of science and technology. This move will strengthen NITI Aayog’s support to entrepreneurship and innovation in the technology ecosystem.
Currently, there are about 2,441 schools registered under this program. With this addition, the number will rise to a massive 5,441 institutions. ATL will also reach out to children who are not formally enrolled in education. Mostly providing educational training and self-learning, ATL also hosts various competitions, workshops and science fairs regularly to entice students towards scientific inventions and nurture their talent. The main focus is to enhance skills pertaining to language, design and computational thinking.
On this occasion, Ramanathan Ramanan, managing director of AIM, addressed the media, “These additional 3,000 schools will greatly expand the reach of the ATL program, increasing the number of children exposed to tinkering and innovation and providing access to the young innovators of India to technologies like 3D Printing, Robotics, IoT and microprocessors”.
The selected schools will receive a grant of ₹20 lakh for the next five years. With this progress, AIM also plans to setup ATLs across every district in the country. India will definitely witness a paradigm shift towards technology with AIM’s revolution in fostering innovation. Ultimately, this will bridge the skills gap across all parts of the country as the world advances towards futuristic technology such as artificial intelligence and internet of things (IoT).
