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...
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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