Maharashtra Innovation Challenge draws 1.07 lakh sign-ups, 16,057 ideas

More than a lakh people have signed up for the Maharashtra Zone round of the 'Seva First Innovation Challenge'. The state's Department of Skills, Employment, Entrepreneurship and Innovation reports 1,07,603 registrations, including 71,532 from Maharashtra itself.

Of those who registered, participants from Maharashtra, Goa, Chhattisgarh, and Daman and Diu have submitted 16,057 ideas. Maharashtra accounts for 13,367 of them.

Skills and Employment Minister Mangal Prabhat Lodha conceived the challenge. It asks young people to turn their creativity into practical solutions across 10 sectors, among them agriculture, healthcare, defence, education and emerging technologies.

The idea count shows where young innovators are focusing. Agriculture leads with 1,983 submissions, followed by energy and climate change with 1,976 and education and employment with 1,759. Artificial intelligence, blockchain and other emerging technologies bring in 1,610 more.

The prize is real money and real work. Fifty winners will each get a work order worth Rs 10 lakh, backed by a Rs 5 crore fund. Committees led by district collectors in every district will identify the winners. Lodha said an innovation fair, expected to draw about 3,000 people, will be held in Mumbai or Nagpur toward the end of November, and winners will be felicitated there. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been invited, and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has also written to him.

Lodha says the rewards will not stop at the winners. Under the CM Maha Fund scheme, one lakh youths will be picked from 30 lakh young people and offered loans of Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh at lower interest rates. His stated aim is to help young people become entrepreneurs who create jobs instead of just seeking them.

Source: Deccan Chronicle

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