ISRO Chairman to Launch ARISE Atal New India Challenges in Space Domain for Small Enterprises

ISRO chairman Dr K Sivan, along with Dr Rajiv Kumar, VC, Niti Aayog and Amitabh Kant, CEO, Niti Aayog will launch the ARISE Atal New India Challenges in Space Domain for MSMEs and startups tomorrow. The event will be relayed live from 11:30 am onwards on YouTube on 9 September 2020. While not much is known about the event, the tweet shared by ISRO says that it is an Aatmanirbhar Initiative to promote applied research and innovation in small enterprises in the space domain.

ARISE, which stands for Atal Research and Innovation for Small Enterprises, is an initiative that aims at stimulating innovation, competitiveness and research in Indian startups and small enterprises including Micro, Small, and Medium enterprises. The objective of the program is to catalyze research, innovation, find solutions to the sectoral problems and subsequently trigger the creation of new industrial sectors, through the support of central government ministries and departments, who would also eventually become the first buyers of the solutions or products innovated under the ARISE program by start-ups and small enterprises.

Since this initiative is being launched in the space domain, ARISE may become a multi-phase, multi-sector, and multi-stakeholder program to identify, fund, guide, hand-hold, and procure from Indian startups and small enterprises in space technology.

The program will most likely look to engage small and medium industries in the space technology sector in order to develop indigenous solutions and improve India’s import substitution capabilities while developing its export leadership in nation-critical sectors, thus making the space sector “Aatma Nirbhar”. Those who wish to see the launch of the initiative live can do so on YouTube.