PM Modi announces launch of Aatmanirbhar Bharat App Innovation Challenge, invites startups, tech community to participate

Narendra Modi, Prime minister of India | Though almost all of India’s Prime Ministers have come from the nearly 80% of the population that is Hindu, only Modi has governed as if no one else matters,” writes Karl Vick, Time editor. (Image: Reuters)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on July 4 announced the launch of a challenge to facilitate members of the Indian tech and startup community in creating world-class 'Made in India' apps.

"To help our start-up and tech community achieve this objective, Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology along with Atal Innovation Mission are coming up with the Aatmanirbhar Bharat Innovation challenge. This shall run in two tracks: Promotion of Existing Apps and Development of New Apps."

The challenge aims to promote those who may have such a working product or if feel they have the vision and expertise to create such products. The prime minister urged members of the country's tech and startup ecosystem to participate in the challenge.

Lauding the tech and startup community in India, PM Modi said acknowledged the huge potential of the country's market and the scale our products can achieve if they can satisfy the demands of the market.  He also noted that there is a huge interest and enthusiasm among the startup and tech ecosystem in India "to innovate, develop and promote homegrown apps".

The present time when the country is looking at achieving self-reliance and working towards the goal of an 'Atmanirbhar Bharat', the prime minister said, "is a good opportunity to give direction to the efforts, momentum to the hard-work and mentorship to their talent to evolve Apps which can satisfy our market as well as compete with the world".

The announcement comes soon after the government banned 59 Chinese apps in India, including the much-popular TikTok app.

The challenge will be jointly hosted by the government and members of the tech community.