New Delhi, March 14 Aiming to promote startups and entrepreneurs in the waste management sector, the Centre in January had launched "Swachhata Startup Challenge" in collaboration with Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Minister of State for Housing & Urban Affairs, Kaushal Kishore said in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
Kishore said that the applications were received from startups working in the domain under four thematic areas identified as, Social Inclusion, Zero Dump, Plastic Waste Management and Transparency. These start-ups will be evaluated for the quality of solutions offered by them.
"Under the scheme, the ten best solutions from the startups will be selected and each of them will get financial support of Rs 25 lakh per selected project and one year dedicated incubation support," the minister elaborated.
He said that additionally, a "Swachh Technology Challenge" was also launched in December 2021.
"All Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) conducted the challenge and submitted two best solutions to states after which states evaluated the entries to identify maximum three best entries. The ULBs across the country have to provide implementation support to the wining solutions startups other than award money and state, city level felicitation," Kishore added.
He further said that provisions have been made under Swachh Bharat Mission - Urban 2.0 Guidelines to encourage adoption of locally innovated, cost-effective technology solutions and business models in sanitation and solid waste management by startups, through investment in Research & Design (R&D) and facilitation in Government-e-Market (GeM) portal, in order to take forward the Government's vision of an "Aatma Nirbhar Bharat" and "Make in India".
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