Context: Recently, the Ministry for Electronics and Information Technology launched Chunauti- Next Generation Startup Challenge.
About the challenge

• The contest aims to further boost startups and software products with a special focus on Tier-II towns of India.
• It aims to identify around 300 startups working in identified areas and provide them seed fund of up to Rs. 25 Lakh and other facilities.

Startups in the following areas of work are being invited under the challenge:

• Edu-Tech, Agri-Tech & Fin-Tech Solutions for masses
• Supply Chain, Logistics & Transportation Management
• Infrastructure & Remote monitoring
• Medical Healthcare, Diagnostic, Preventive & Psychological Care
• Jobs & Skilling, Linguistic tools & technologies

What the selected startups will get:

• The startups selected through Chunauti will be provided various support from the Government through the Software Technology Parks of India centres across India.
• They will get incubation facilities, mentorship, security testing facilities, access to venture capitalist funding, industry connect as well as advisories in legal, Human Resource (HR), IPR and Patent matters.
• Besides seed fund of up to Rs. 25 Lakh, the startups will also be provided cloud credits from leading cloud service providers.
• Start-ups who are in the ideation stage may be selected under the pre-incubation programme & mentored for up to six months to evolve their business plan & solution around the proposed idea.
• Each intern (start-up under pre-incubation) will be paid Rs. 10,000/- per month up to a period of 6 months.