Days after the government banned 59 Chinese apps, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday invited the start-up and tech community to participate in the “Aatmanirbhar Bharat App Innovation Challenge”.
The prime minister has launched the “Aatmanirbhar Bharat Innovation Challenge” to identify the best Indian apps that are already being used by citizens and have the potential to scale and become world class apps in their respective categories, an official statement said. Modi also said that the challenge will help create an “Aatmanirbhar App Ecosystem”. “Who knows, I may also use some of these apps made by you,” he said in a write-up on LinkedIn. Today there is immense enthusiasm among the tech and start-up community to create world class “Made in India Apps”, Modi said.
“To facilitate their ideas and products, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology along with the Atal Innovation Mission are launching the ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat App Innovation Challenge’,” the prime minister tweeted sharing the link to the LinkedIn post.
Modi had given a call for an “Atmanirbhar Bharat (a self-reliant India) and had urged people to be “vocal for local” products. He said the app innovation challenge is for those who have such a working product or if they feel they have the vision and expertise to create such products.
“I urge all my friends in the tech community to participate,” he said while sharing the write-up “Let us Code for an Aatmanirbhar Bharat”.
India has a very vibrant tech and start-up ecosystem, which has done India proud nationally as well as globally, Modi said. “The COVID-19 pandemic has also brought about a big disruption, which is being tackled through the use of technology to aid our day to day lives,” the prime minister pointed out.