Chunauti: Next Generation Startup Challenge Contest Launched By IT Ministry, Aims To Identify 300 Startups

• Chunauti aims to identify the best 300 startups from the tier-2 cities.
• The contest aims to provide the seed funds of up to Rs. 25 Lakh and other facilities such as cloud services.
• The start-ups that are in the ideation stage may be selected under the pre-incubation program and mentored for six months and will be paid Rs 10,000 per month for up to 6 months.
• Application submission ends on 07th September 2020 and results to be announced on 28th September 2020.

Union Minister for Electronics and Infomation Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad launched a NextGen Startup Challenge Contest CHUNAUTI (Challenge Hunt Under NGIS for Advanced Uninhibited Technology Intervention).

It is a challenge under NGIS to find the products & solutions to address the issues/challenges faced during and post-pandemic situation.

Under this challenge, the Ministry aims to invite around 300 startups from areas such as Edu-tech, Agri-tech, and Fintech solutions for masses, supply chain, logistics, and transportation management.

Startups working in infrastructure and remote monitoring, medical healthcare, diagnostic, preventive and psychological care, jobs, and skilling, as well as linguistic tools and technologies, are also invited under this contest.

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The government assigned Rs 95.03 crore over a period of three years for this program. CHUNAUTI will be conducted in a single stage. The Start-ups submitting the proposals/applications can be in any of the following stages.
Ideation Stage, Prototype Stage,  Pre-revenue Stage, Revenue Stage.

The 300 startups thus selected through the Chunauti contest will then be with incubation facilities, mentorship, access to venture capitalist funding, security testing facilities, industry connect and advisories in legal, HR, IPR, and Patent matters.

The government will also provide them with a seed fund of up to Rs. 25 Lakh. The startups will also be provided with cloud services with support from the Government through the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) centers across India. 

The start-ups that are in the ideation stage may be selected under the pre-incubation program and mentored for 6 months to help them evolve their business plan solution around the proposed idea. Startups receive Rs 10,000 per month for up to 6 months, under this program.

While speaking on the virtual event, the Minister urged the young and talented innovators of the country to come forward and avail benefits of the challenge and create new software products and apps. The launch is in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s clarion call to help India develop into an Aatma Nirbhar Bharat.

The Union Minister also laid the foundation stone of the digital training and skilling center of the National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology (NIELIT) at Muzaffarpur in Bihar.

This center, which is to be spread across an acre, will be equipped with a state of the art training facility with digital laboratory. This center will be developed at a cost of Rs. 9.17 crore.

Startups can apply by visiting the website of STPI: https://innovate.stpinext.in/