"Atal Tinkering Labs” Proving To Be A Game-Changer For School Children

New Delhi, December 6 (TNA) Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology, Jitendra Singh on Tuesday said that "Atal Tinkering Labs", introduced at the initiative of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, have proved to be game-changer for school children.

While inaugurating the New Delhi Municipal Council’s (NDMC) Schools Annual Science Fair at NDCC Convention Center, said, “Atal Tinkering Labs, Atal Incubation Centres and Atal Community Innovation Centres are inculcating an innovative mindset in school children, besides supporting StartUps and innovators".

Referring to Mentorship programmes of the Department of Science & Technology and Atal Tinkering Labs (ATLs), the union minister said, all these are guided with the Mantra of “Catch them Young” and added that the Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), which recently completed its 7th year, is complementary to the government’s vision of “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas, Sabka Prayas”.

Young minds will steer India’s future growth with Science & Technology and Innovation, the Minister said. India's scientific prowess is going to have a major role in the making of Atmanirbhar Bharat, he said. The S&T Minister pointed out that in the past few years, India has covered a long distance in the innovation landscape and today India has more than 1,25,000 Startups and 100+ Unicorns.

“This has been possible with the government’s various initiatives like Atal Innovation Mission and INSPIRE-MANAK Awards,” he said. With a vision to ‘Cultivate one Million Children in India as Neoteric Innovators’, AIM is establishing ATLs in schools across India. The objective of this scheme is to foster curiosity, creativity and imagination in young minds; and inculcate skills such as design mindset, computational thinking, adaptive learning, physical computing etc.

ATL is a workspace where young minds can give shape to their ideas through hands-on do-it-yourself mode; and learn innovation skills. Young children get a chance to work with tools and equipment to understand the concepts of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math). ATL contains educational and learning ‘Do It Yourself’ (DIY) kits and equipment on science, electronics, robotics, open-source microcontroller boards, sensors and 3D printers and computers.

There are 10,000 ATLs spread across the country, with 75 lakh students actively engaged. Under the AIM, 59 Atal Incubation Centres have created over 32,000 jobs and supported more than 2,900 Startups.