Aatmanirbhar Bharat: PM Pitches For Made In India Apps

NEW DELHI: Just days after India banned 59 made in China apps, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday invited the start-up and tech community to participate in the "Aatmanirbhar Bharat App Innovation Challenge". In a write-up on LinkedIn, the PM said that it will help create an "Aatmanirbhar App Ecosystem".

"Who knows, I may also use some of these apps made by you," he said.

Today there is immense enthusiasm among the tech and start-up community to create world class "Made in India Apps", the PM 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 PM tweeted sharing the link to the LinkedIn post.

PM 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, the PM said.

The country's youth have excelled in providing tech solutions across sectors, he 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.

Everyone is aware of the huge potential of the market and the scale products can achieve if they can satisfy the demand, he said.

"Nowadays, we are seeing huge interest and enthusiasm among the start-up and tech ecosystem to innovate, develop and promote homegrown apps," PM Modi said.

There is tremendous scope among these sectors for new apps which solve specific issues for India and the world, he said.

"Can we think of making traditional Indian games more popular via apps? Can we develop apps with targeted and smart access to the right age group for learning, gaming? Can we develop gaming apps for people in rehabilitation or getting counselling to help them in their journey? There are many such questions and technology alone can give answers in a creative manner," PM Modi observed.

Electronics and Information Technology (IT) Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that the prime minister has launched the challenge to encourage Indian application developers and innovators.

This challenge is for you if you have such a working product or if you feel you have the vision and expertise to create such products. I urge all my friends in the tech community to participate.

Sharing my thoughts in my @LinkedIn post. https://t.co/aO5cMYi4SH

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 4, 2020