Why in News?

• On the 150th birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, AIM, NITI Aayog’s Atal Tinkering Labs (ATL) and UNICEF India, including Generation Unlimited, have launched ‘The Gandhian Challenge’.

About Gandhian Challenge:

• It is an innovation challenge which provides a platform for every child across India to ideate innovative solutions for a sustainable India of their dreams, using Gandhi’s principles.
• The winners of The Gandhian Challenge will be awarded by NITI Aayog’s Atal Innovation Mission and UNICEF on the occasion of Children’s Day in November. The contest – open for every child in India from 2 October to 20 October – also celebrates 70 years of partnership between Government of India and UNICEF India to enable Every Right for Every Child.
• Ideas and solutions to the Gandhian Challenge may be expressed through broad categories: Art & Innovation (Letters, poems, painting, videos and photos, among others) and Science, Technology & Innovation (Robotics, IoT, sensors and 3D printers, among others).

About Atal Innovation Mission (AIM):

• AIM is the Government of India’s flagship initiative to promote a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship in the country.
• AIM’s objective is to develop new programmes and policies for fostering innovation in different sectors of the economy, provide platform and collaboration opportunities for different stakeholders, create awareness and create an umbrella structure to oversee innovation ecosystem of the country.
• Six major initiatives of AIM:
  • Atal Tinkering Labs-Creating problem-solving mindset across schools in India.
  • Atal Incubation Centers-Fostering world class start-ups and adding a new dimension to the incubator model.
  • Atal New India Challenges-Fostering product innovations and aligning them to the needs of various sectors/ministries.
  • Mentor India Campaign- A national Mentor network in collaboration with public sector, corporates and institutions, to support all the initiatives of the mission.
  • Atal Community Innovation Center- To stimulate community centric innovation and ideas in the unserved /underserved regions of the country including Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.
  • ARISE-To stimulate innovation and research in the MSME industry.

About UNICEF India and Generation Unlimited:

• UNICEF, an integral part of the United Nations, works with governments, communities, civil society organizations, the private sector, and other partners worldwide to advance children’s rights, and is guided by the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
• Generation Unlimited is a new UNICEF-led global partnership that aims to ensure that every young person age 10-24 is in some form of school, learning, training, self-employment, or age-appropriate employment by 2030.
• It aims to co-create and scale up proven solutions related to secondary age-education, skills for learning, employability and decent work, and empowerment, with a focus on girls.