India-Denmark collaborates to address water challenges & SDGs in India through Atal Innovation Mission

India-Denmark collaborates to address water challenges & SDGs in India through Atal Innovation Mission

India’s premier policy think tank NITI Aayog joined hands with Embassy of Denmark to India to build a world-class innovation ecosystem under the Atal Innovation Mission (AIM). The collaboration is a part of Indo-Danish bilateral Green strategic partnership.

AIM, NITI Aayog and Embassy of Denmark to India signed a Statement of Intent (SoI) on April 12. The purpose of SoI is to jointly work towards promoting innovation and entrepreneurship amongst the aspiring entrepreneurs. The partnership would be executed through Innovation Center Denmark (ICDK) under the aegis of the Embassy of Denmark.

To realise a world-class innovation ecosystem in India, the Innovation Center Denmark in India will collaborate with AIM to support various current and future initiatives of AIM, NITI Aayog and its beneficiaries in India as well as develop global innovation Green economy partnerships addressing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Dr Rajiv Kumar, Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog, lauded the move saying, “I look forward to this collaboration very much and I hope that whatever we do, we will also focus on water use in agriculture that takes up to 92 per cent of the water. I hope with this collaboration we can bring something very innovative in this field as well besides the others.”

According to Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog, the partnership between India and Denmark holds a great potential. While sharing his thoughts on the occasion, he said, “For impactful innovation across multiple sectors, this partnership upholds a great potential. Through such global collaborations we can align research and development efforts to achieve results in an accelerated manner even in these challenging times.”

Also Read: India-Denmark work on establishing Green Strategic Partnership

Denmark’s Ambassador to India, Freddy Svane, in his address mentioned that water is a substance that cannot be replaced. “We need to use all kinds of innovative thinking to make judicious use of it so that the future generations do not face a lot of water challenges as compared to the current scenario.”

Further, he emphasised on three key points Water, Women, and the World. He said, “Water is the stream of life hence its importance for present and future generations cannot be stressed enough. Women empowerment is key to the growth of a nation and to the sustainability goals of the World. If we do not solve water management and challenges issues, regardless of the location, it will impact lives across the world.”

AIM-ICDK shall also explore various areas of collaboration such as AIM-Denmark school students innovation exchange and co-innovation development, hosting Indo-Denmark innovation challenges, facilitating startup-incubator collaborations and exchanges, and promotion of startup and entrepreneurship events and competitions through the networks and channels of both parties.

AIM and ICDK have previously collaborated to host the AIM-ICDK Water challenge and the SoI between the two would pave the way for future collaborations that allow innovation exchanges between two countries.

(With inputs from PIB)