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Shri Himanshu Gupta, IAS DC Karol Bagh Zone, North MCD and Dr. Nikhil Agarwal, CEO, SIIC IIT Kanpur, launch CiTe- Civic Tech Innovation Launchpad New Delhi, February 25, 2021: Shri Himanshu Gupta, IAS DC Karol Bagh Zone, North MCD, launched CiTe- Civic Tech Innovation Launchpad in partnership with Startup Incubation and Innovation Centre, IIT Kanpur. CiTe is a 15-day competition aimed to engage startups and innovators to present solutions addressing waste management, water management, town planning, and sanitation and hygiene. The launchpad will support the top 3 ideas, which will receive technical and business mentorship at SIIC, IIT Kanpur. CiTe is the first-of-its-kind initiative, supported by North DMC and SIIC, IIT Kanpur, to invite start-ups & innovators to solve the civic issues in North DMC. The initiative was inaugurated on a virtual platform by a distinguished panel led by Shri Himanshu Gupta, IAS, and Dr. Nikhil Agarwal, CEO, SIIC IIT Kanpur, with enthusiastic students and innovators from across India. FIRST and North DMC signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for furthering this initiative and promoting the ethos of entrepreneurship among the youth passionate to solve civic issues. Startups & innovators selected under CiTe will receive up to INR 25 Lakhs worth innovation fellowship and prototype development support, with a chance to refine those solutions in unison with the leadership and officials there. In the current call for application, the focus areas are critical civic issues for North DMC - waste management, water management, town planning, and sanitation and hygiene. The call for application will be open from February 25, 2021, for seven days, until March 3, 2021. Any Indian entity, individual innovator, or student can apply to be a part of CiTe. Shri Himanshu Gupta shared, “The initiative will provide a well-deserved platform to the young Indian minds passionate to solve civic issues. Such facilitation must be promoted rampantly across the nation to promote purpose-driven innovation. This initiative aims to provide support to an Atmanirbhar Bharat and is just the beginning of putting India on the map of social innovation.” Dr. Nikhil Agarwal expressed, “CiTe will usher in a wave of collaborative efforts between innovators and government leadership to address key challenges through civic tech. A one-of-its-kind initiative, CiTe will encourage bright Indian minds to make a foray into entrepreneurship. SIIC will fill in the gaps through world-class mentoring support – both technical and business.” |
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