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GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
MINISTRY OF PLANNING
LOK SABHA
UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2974
TO BE ANSWERED ON 05.08.2026
DEDICATED NATIONAL MISSION
2974. SHRI VIRENDRA SINGH:
Will the Minister of PLANNING be pleased to state:
(a) whether the Government is running any dedicated national
mission to promote innovation, research, and technical development
among the youth and if so, the details thereof;
(b) whether innovation laboratories are being set up in schools,
colleges and rural areas through the ‘Atal Innovation Mission’,
‘Startup India’, or other similar schemes and if so, the details thereof;
(c) whether the benefits of these initiatives are effectively
reaching the remote areas of the country and if so, the details thereof
and if not, the reasons therefor; and
(d) whether the Government has launched any special grant or
fellowship scheme to provide financial assistance to young
researchers and if so, the details thereof?
ANSWER
MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) OF THE MINISTRY
OF STATISTICS AND PROGRAMME IMPLEMENTATION; MINISTER OF
STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) OF THE MINISTRY OF PLANNING
AND MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF CULTURE
(RAO INDERJIT SINGH)
(a) to (c) Yes Sir, the Government is implementing Atal Innovation
Mission (AIM) to promote innovation and entrepreneurship among the
youth. Under the Mission, 10,000 Atal Tinkering Labs (ATLs), 93 Atal
Page 1 of 2Incubation Centres (AICs), 25 Atal Community Innovation Centres
(ACICs) have been established. 60% of the established ATLs are in
rural areas. Further, ACICs are mainly established in Tier II, Tier III,
rural and aspirational areas to promote grassroots innovation and
entrepreneurship.
(d) Yes Sir, Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF),
under the Department of Science & Technology, has launched the
National Post-Doctoral Fellowship (NPDF) programme aimed to
identify motivated young researchers and providing them with
support for doing research in frontier areas of science and
engineering. ANRF has also initiated Prime Minister's Early Career
Research Grant to assist researchers to initiate their research
career. Further, Ramanujan Fellowship programme of ANRF is
designed to attract brilliant Indian/Indian Origin scientists and
engineers from outside India.
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