Winners of Atal Innovation Mission’s AIM-ICDK 2.0 win big at Next Generation Water Action (NGWA) Global Multi-hub finals’

‘Next Generation Water Action (NGWA) Global Multi-hub Pre-event’ was held at Niti Aayog head office, New Delhi, followed by the virtual NGWA Global Multi-hub finals.

Amongst the five Indian student teams that participated, two teams won the following awards-

1. IWA world water Congress Scholarship- Team Hydrogravitricity

2. Acceleration Scholarship Award of 1000 Euros - Team BARCO

The Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog was the challenge partner from India. The event happened simultaneously in 5 countries - Mexico, India, South Korea, Kenya and Denmark. In order to select the students for the NGWA finals, Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog had launched the AIM-ICDK 2.0 Water Innovation Challenge in partnership with Innovation Center Denmark (ICDK), Embassy of Denmark and Denmark Technical University (DTU). This event is a part of the greater Indo-Danish Bilateral Green strategic partnership.

Doubling down on the efforts to scale up innovations in the water sector, the AIM-ICDK 2.0 water innovation challenge was rolled out under the year-old ambitious partnership of AIM, NITI Aayog and Innovation Center Denmark (ICDK) under the aegis of Embassy of Denmark.

The initiative aims to identify innovative & next-gen solutions to solve proposed challenges in collaboration with corporate and public partners. The initiative will engage young talents from leading universities and innovation hubs across the nation to build their skills and apply their technical disciplines and innovation capacity to come up with technology-driven innovative solutions for management of water related challenges, not only for India but for the world.

The winners of the challenges will also represent India at the International Water Congress 2022. Denmark Embassy in India, and the Denmark Technical University (DTU) to prepare the Indian participants for the Global Next Generation Water Action (NGWA) program hosted by DTU. The winners of the challenges participated in the challenges as Indian participation for the global Next Generation Water Action program and engaged with young talents from leading universities and innovation hubs.

Talking at the event, His Excellency, Deputy Ambassador of Denmark to India, Mr. Martin Strandgaard, said “The collaboration between AIM and ICDK at Embassy of Denmark shows the strong relationship between Denmark and India. It shows how our Green Strategic Partnership is used to solve some of today’s most pressing matters. Such as access to water resources in India. I am also very happy that this relationship gives us a chance to work with the youth of India. Your engagement in solving some of the world’s most critical issues, shows your commitment to making the world a better and more sustainable place. This event may be focused on problems in India, but if we can solve environmental problems in this huge and diverse country, then we can solve them everywhere.

Avinash Mishra, Adviser (Water Resources & Land Resources), NITI Aayog’s said-“As we all may agree, challenges in the water sector are translated into challenges in many other sectors. Going forward, these challenges will become more complex due to rapid urbanization, population growth, and climate change impacts. The Atal Innovation Mission - Innovation Centre Denmark (AIM-ICDK) Water Innovation Challenge becomes relevant in this context”

Speaking at the event, Dr Chintan Vaishnav, Mission Director, Atal Innovation Mission said- “AIM-ICDK Water Innovation Challenge is a flagship initiative between India and Denmark. It is heartening to witness the Young entrepreneurs across the world pitching their ideas on international forum like this, on a topic which is essentially a part of our lives i.e. Water. Creating innovations in the water area is not a luxury and but it is the need of the hour, and I am glad that these young students have taken up this responsibility.”