: NITI Aayog launches vernacular innovation programme #finance #StockMarketNEWS #Business New Delhi: The innovation ecosystem in India is set to get a boost with NITI Aayog launching the country’s

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NITI Aayog launches vernacular innovation programme #finance #StockMarketNEWS #Business
New Delhi: The innovation ecosystem in India is set to get a boost with NITI Aayog launching the country’s first vernacular innovation programme (VIP) which will enable innovators and entrepreneurs in India to have access to the ecosystem in 22 scheduled languages.

The initiative under the Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), aimed at empowerment of innovators and entrepreneurs, will build the necessary capacity for the VIP for which a vernacular task force (VTF) will be trained in each of the 22 scheduled languages.

Each task force will comprise vernacular language teachers, subject experts, technical writers and the leadership of regional Atal incubation centres (AICs).

This programme may well place India globally as the first nation where an innovation ecosystem catering to 22 languages and English is being developed.

The programme will get rolling with a collaboration involving the design department of IIT Delhi to coach the VTF in design thinking and entrepreneurship and the adaptation of these subjects in the 22 languages and cultures.

Furthermore, industry mentors have joined hands to lend design thinking expertise, and CSR sponsors have agreed to support the programme.

On completing the training of the task force over the period of December 2021 to April 2022, the ecosystem will be opened to vernacular innovators.

The programme is launched at a time when the innovation ecosystem could do with lowering of the language barrier in the field of innovation and entrepreneurship, according to Chintan Vaishnav, the mission director of AIM.

There has been a growing need to address the struggle of not being able to expose one’s idea or innovation to the world, especially in India with its great diversity of languages.

As per the 2011 census, only 10. 4 per cent of Indians speak English, most as their second, third or fourth language. Not surprisingly, only 0. 02 per cent of Indians spoke English as their first language.

“Ten years later these numbers are not likely to be very different. Why shouldn’t we then create equal opportunity for the vernacular innovators who represent the staggering 90 per cent of our population,�? said Vaishnav.

Vice Chairman NITI Aayog Rajiv Kumar and CEO Amitabh Kant see the VIP initiative as a stepping stone in the entrepreneurship ecosystem which will cement the cognitive and design thinking attitude in young and aspiring minds and sharpen the design and innovation capabilities in India.

Local entrepreneurs, artisans and innovators will be able to assimilate the knowledge and technical materials that AIM will develop, which will assist in building a strong local network of design experts and innovation practitioners.