Government has launched ‘Swachhata Startup Challenge’ on January 27, 2022 in collaboration with Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) to promote an enabling environment for development startups and entrepreneurs in the waste management sector. Applications received from startups working in the domain of four thematic areas have been identified viz. (i) Social Inclusion (ii) Zero Dump (iii) Plastic Waste Management and (iv) Transparency, will be evaluated for the quality of solutions offered.
The scheme provides for the ten best solutions from the startups to be selected and each of them to get financial support of ₹25 Lakh per selected project and one year dedicated incubation support.
In addition to the “Swachhata Startup Challenge”, Government has also launched the “Swachh Technology Challenge” on December 6, 2021.
As per the “Swachh Technology Challenge” guidelines, 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.
Further, 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”.
This information was given by the Minister of State for Housing & Urban Affairs, Shri Kaushal Kishore, in a written reply in the Lok Sabha today.