NITI Aayog in collaboration with ISRO, CBSE launch 'Space Challenge' for school students

Niti Aayog's Atal Innovation Mission in tie-up with ISRO and CBSE has announced a 'Space Challenge' for school students across the country, an official statement said on Friday, September 10, 2021. This challenge has been designed and crafted for all the school students, mentors and teachers across India who not only are associated with schools having Atal Tinkering Labs (ATL) labs but for all the non-ATL schools as well.

 "Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), Niti Aayog in collaboration with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) successfully launched the ATL Space Challenge 2021 for all school students across the country," the official statement said. 

This is to make sure that students from 6th to 12th classes are given an open and wide platform where they can innovate and enable themselves to solve digital age space technology problems, it added. The ATL Space Challenge 2021 aligns with the World Space Week 2021 which is being observed from 4th to 10th October each year at an international level in order to celebrate the contributions of space science and technology. 

AIM Mission Director Chintan Vaishnav said that the aim and focus of this challenge is to enable innovation among young innovative minds to create something in the space sector that will not only help them learn about space but create something that the space programme can use itself. Director Capacity Building Programme Office (ISRO) Sudhir Kumar said, "We take pride in creating a tie-up with AIM and CBSE to launch this Space Challenge where students can explore space with the freedom of creativity." 

“ATL space challenge 2021 has a huge potential in terms of allowing the children to come up with ideas and having an environment where they can see their ideas turned into a reality through the ecosystem that AIM, ISRO and CBSE are providing through this challenge. Under the Atal Innovation Mission, the Aayog is running initiatives like Atal Incubation Centres and ATLs to promote entrepreneurship and innovation,” says the CBSE Chairman Manoj Ahuja.