TINKERPRENEURSHIP

Tinkerpreneurship initiative is launched by NITI AYOG under the umbrella scheme AIM (Atal
Innovation Mission). Under the initiative Atal tinkering labs are set up at school level for 6th to 12th
grade students to promote innovation and skill development. Under this scheme, a 9 week long -
digital skills and entrepreneurship bootcamp is also conducted. The tinkerpreneurship aims to
“enable the students to tinker from the comfort of their homes to become entrepreneurs”. Under
this scheme Top 100 ATL students are selected to be mentored by the top mentors and executives
from ISB.

The Atal Innovation Mission is the umbrella scheme under which the government aims to promote
innovation and entrepreneurship. It was launched in the year 2016 and the implementing agency is
NITI AYOG. The aim of the mission is to foster and promote a culture of innovation and skill
development through various do it yourself activities at the various school , universities and the
society as a whole. Initiatives under AIM:

1)ATAL TINKERING LABS : >set up at school level

>the goal is to foster curiosity in the young minds from 6th to 12th grade

> 21st century tools are used such as internet of things, 3D printing,
robotics , DIY kits etc.

>296 ATL adopted by CSIR(council of science and Indian research) where

top researchers and scholars will mentor the students

>100 ATLs are adopted by ISRO(Indian Space Research Organisation) to

promote education the field of science technology engineering and mathematics(STEM)

2) ATAL INCUBATION CENTRE: > at university, institution, corporate level

> to foster an ecosystem of innovation it provides incubation centres at

university level for innovative minds who want to convert their idea into scalable and sustainable
ventures.

>it provides business capital support , seed capital , and mentorship

> AICs established will be sector specific

3)ATAL COMMUNITY INNOVATION CENTRES: >for the unserved or underserved sections of the
society

4) ATAL NEW INDIA CHALLENGES : > aims to seek, select, nurture innovations that solve sectoral
problems that have a societal relevance and national importance.

> ANIC works in two folds: to identify innovative and

technology driven solutions to the problem and identify and capture early markets for the
solutions.

>it aims to incentivize innovations in areas of national

importance in terms of growth and development such as education , health , water ,agriculture ,food
processing etc .
5)ARISE ANIC : > it is line with the “Make in India” “Atmanirbhar bharat” “Make in India” schemes

> aims to promote research, development and innovation in the to promote

industries and MSMEs in India, and increase the competitiveness of Indian start-ups.

> the aim is to provide steady steam of solutions and products where the
government becomes the potential first buyers.

6)Mentor to Change : >to enable the initiatives to succeed the AIM has launched one of the largest
mentor engagement and management programme “Mentor India- the Mentors of change”

Backed by government initiatives and support such as the AIM , STARTUP INDIA, MAKE IN INDIA,
ATAMNIRBHAR BHARAT the Indian entrepreneurship is growing in leaps and bounds. From an
emerging market we have consolidated ourselves as the fastest growing market. Indian start-up
ecosystem is the third largest today with over 100 unicorns.

DATA ECONOMY
Data economy refers to a global digital ecosystem where the data is collected, organised and
exchanged among various stakeholders. The data is collected through various sources such as search
engines, e-commerce platforms, vendors, software as a service purveyor, social media websites, etc.
Data inputs collected through these sources are stored in data centres and will be accessible through
internet-based applications collectively referred to as cloud. These are then transferred to
individuals and companies, through intermediaries typically charging a fee.

We need data ecosystem with a network of various stakeholders for the following reasons:

- To achieve social value where industries and organisations take comprehensive strategies for
sustainable business plans

- To drive new business models

- To make technology transformation competitively advantageous

- Collaborating with partners to exchange data help in driving new models. The data collected
through these data centres and shared among the various stakeholders give insights into the various
aspects

- The sharing of data assets adds value and thus helps in reaping the benefits of deeper insights

- Data exchanges and marketplaces provide a common platform for sharing and accessing data on a
real time basis.
India has also initiated a transition to become a data economy. The Government is trying to make
India USD1 trillion digital economy by 2025(PIB). The various initiatives/schemes launched by GOI
,for digitization

> Universal Payments Interface (by NPCI) that processed more than 46 billion transactions.

>The Digital India Mission with the vision to transform India into a digitally empowered economy.

>National digital communication policy 2018 launched with objective of broadband for all and
creating 4million additional jobs.

Data economy is an essential step towards growth. The digitization lead to vast amount of data. The
data however has no value if not converted into useful insights and analysis. The survey conducted
by MIT Technology ,45% of the respondents say they use data for only basic insights and decision-
making. Thus lacking on capitalization of the data. This can only be done when all the stakeholders
participate in the data economy. The medical organisation for example can collaborate with the
companies manufacturing smart , devices tracking heart rate, blood pressure etc on a real time
basis. The exchange of data will be beneficial for both the organisations. The organisations will
respond to the various problems with innovative business models (competitive edge and new
business verticals too) and thus caters to the need of the consumers.

How does the newly launched National Logistics Policy

complement the PM Gati Shakti Masterplan?
PM Gati Shakti scheme also referred to as National Master plan for multi modal connectivity plan ,
aims to bring 16 ministries for integrated planning and coordinated implementation of the
connectivity projects. It is a multi- modal connectivity plan. The scheme :

• Aims to have 11 industrial corridors and two new defence corridors by 2024-2025.

•Gati shakti the digital portal will offer geospatial data which will allow to track the progress of a
particular project on real time basis and hence avoiding the overlapping of works .

•The scheme incorporates the infrastructure schemes of various ministries and the state like
bharatmala, sagarmala, inland waterways etc.

•The different departments will work in collaboration and get data on real time basis and hence
avoid problems arising when they work in silos, cross-sectoral interactions.

Logistics refers to planning , coordinating, storing, and moving resources -raw materials, products
etc from point of production to the point of consumption or distribution or other production
points.The National Logistics Policy was launched by the Government of India in 2022 , aiming to
achieve last mile delivery and end transport related challenges. The National Logistics Policy was
introduced with the aim to reduce the logistics cost. The indigenously produced goods lose to other
products in the international market due to higher prices reflecting higher transportation costs and
hence the need for NPL. The policy focuses on digitisation, re-engineering processes, and multi
modal transport. The goals of the policy are:
 • Logistics costs have to be cut by half to be around the global
benchmark by 2030.
• The costs are to be reduced from 14%-18% of GDP to 8% of GDP
• India aims to be among top 10 in the logistics performance index by
2030 from 35th position.
• The digital integration system aims to integrate the various
stakeholders in smooth implementation of the policy
• The Unified Logistics Interface Platform aims to dilute all digital
services/ platforms into a single portal.
• The e-logs will allow speedy redressal of the grievances of the
industries.
• Standardisation of physical assets and benchmarking of service
quality standard

PM Gati Shakti aims to build the infrastructure required for developing a multi modal
connectivity. It aims to integrate all the sectors and hence smooth implementation of the
policies which otherwise work in tandem. While it aims to build the infrastructure required
for logistics , National Logistics Policy is concerned with creating the digital services and
regulatory framework to logistics ecosystem in India. National Logistics Plan aims to reduce
the cost of the good and hence promotes goods produced in INDIA that echoes with “MAKE
IN INDIA” scheme , the 100cr infrastructure development masterplan aims to provide means
to reduce the costs. Hence both the schemes provide impetus to ATMANIRBHAR BHARAT,
MAKE IN INDIA . National Logistics Policy uses benchmarking of standards and hence
insures quality product and service. The ULIP aims to address the loss of products in the
supply chain through integrated portal. Thus the national logistics policy complements the
Materplan by increasing its efficiency.

Give an overview of MSME’s contribution to Indian

economy. How do you see this sector
performing in the next decade?
The industries under the Ministry of MSME are categorised as Micro , Small, Medium enterprises
according to the investment and the annual turnover of the industries. The new categorisation of
the MSMEs defined by the government is as follows:

1. Micro enterprises : investment less than Rs 1cr, turnover less than Rs.5cr.
2. Small enterprises: investment less than 10cr , turnover less than 50cr.
3. Medium enterprises: investment less than 50cr , turnover less than 250cr

The MSME sector forms the backbone of the Indian economy. It constitutes the major portion of the
Indian economy and hence contributing to income , employment to a large section of the society.
63 million MSMEs in India :

o Account for over 80% of the businesses and contribute to more than half of the employee
share.
o Contribute to nearly 30% of the GDP
o Employees 110 million people across different services
o Employees the largest number of semi-skilled and unskilled workers.
o Contributes to nearly 50% exports

Moreover the sales reaching nearly 88%, and capacity utilisation nearing 70% of the pre-pandemic
level has been a testament to their resilience and adaptability, even being disproportionately hit by
the pandemic. Thus it can be rightly said that MSME sector will play a pivotal role in achieving the
USD 5 trillion economy. The GOI has been introducing various incentives and schemes to boost the
sector .Some of the schemes include:

o ATMANIRBHAR BHARAT- was launched with the objective of making India self-reliant by
boosting the manufacturing sector , where the aim to increase reduce the import and
decrease the trade deficit that has been the very feature of our economy.
o MAKE IN INDIA- complementing the Atmanirbhar bharat was launched with the main
objective of increasing the exports.
o MUDRA YOJNA- providing financial assistance to the sector , providing collateral free loan of
up to 10lakhs is provided by the member lending institutions across three loans products –
Shishu(loans up to 50000), Kishore(loans above 50000 and up to 5lakh), Tarun(loa ns above
5lakh and up to 10 lakh)
o PLI SCHEME providing incentive according to the production where the government
announced INR1.79cr in 14 sectors.
o 100% FDI through direct route was allowed in the manufacturing sector except for certain
strategically important sectors.
o New registration through UDYAM regstation.
o 5lakh collateral free automatic loans for businesses under Emergency Credit line Guarantee
Scheme.

MSMEs even being a major contributor to the growth in the Indian economy have lacked the
limelight. Yet their performance and their adaptability post covid cannot be ignored. Their growth
projectile is surely going be to positive with major growth in investment, digitisation, expansion, re-
engineering of processes, etc. MSME Digital Readiness Survey 2022 revealed tha52% of small
businesses saw favourable influences of digitisation. The trend is expected to continue with deeper
penetration of digital services along with AI AND Machine learning helping businesses manage their
operations and also providing in depth analysis of the performance of this sector. The lending to the
MSME is also expected to increase thus demonstrating expansion, diversification of the
businesses(MSME Lending Report 2022 by Blinc invest)

What is CPI? Explain it’s type and significance in Indian

Economy.
Consumer Price Index is the price index, the price of a weighted average market basket of consumer
goods and services purchased by households. CPI calculates the change in the general level of prices
of goods and services that the household consumes. The CPI is tracked to monitor price levels in the
economy. For measuring the CPI price quotes are taken from the retailers and hence CPI inflation is
also called retail inflation. RBI selected all India CPI as the inflation index to target inflation under its
new inflation -targeting policy.

The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation and Ministry of Labour and Employment
releases the various CPI. These are:

• CPI-Industrial workers(CPI-IW): Among the three released by Ministry of Labour and

Employment CPI-IW has a lot of significance. It has a wider coverage as other two indexes CPI-RL and
CPI-AL considers only 20 states while CPI-IW covers all the states. The base year for calculations of
CPI is 2016 and data is collected from industrially important sectors spread in the entire country.
The wide coverage and periodic modification make it good index to calculate the cost of living of the
organised sector. The CPI-IW is used to calculate the inflation in the commodities consumed by the
organised sector and index the dearness allowances accordingly of the Central Government
employees.

• CPI-AL (Agricultural labour) CPI-RL(Rural labour) is indices for the rural labourers and
agricultural labourers .The agricultural labour household is the subset of the rural labour household.
It is used to calculate the minimum wages of the labourers and various interventions to be taken by
the government for the welfare of this unorganised sector is also defined by tracking these indices.
The base year of these two is 1986-87.

These indices are prepared by Ministry of Labour and Employment with data compilation by Labour
Bureau.

• Urban CPI and rural CPI: These are calculated from the data calculated from the respective
areas. Urban CPI includes all cities/town with a population of 9lakh as per census covering 310
towns. Rural CPI is based on representative samples of two villages from each district covering 1181
villages across the states.

• CPI combined calculated by combining the urban and rural CPI.

• Consumer Food Price Index measures the change in the retail price of food items consumed
by the population. It is also released monthly for rural urban , an combined (all India basis)

These are prepared by National Statistical Office under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme
Implementation. The base year for the above is 2011-12 and is monthly published.

In the nutshell the indexes interpret:

Cost of living

The purchasing power of the consumers

The expensiveness of different articles

Value of the Indian rupee

CPI most importantly assists in measuring the inflation which ultimately helps in understanding the
general prices of the commodities and hence calculating the cost of living. The RBI uses it to
determine the Monetary policy revolving around managing the inflation at 4% , however it can
fluctuate anywhere between 2% and 6%.

Repo rate is defined in tandem with the inflation in the economy . RBI increases the repo
rate to control inflation to reduce the money supply in the economy.

Calculating inflation adjusted investment returns is also important because it tells the real
value of money and earnings indexed to the inflation.

CPI decides the value of money and hence it sets the base for all the transactions. CPI has an impact
on people from all walks of life- investor, trader, businessman, consumers, etc.

In December India’s year-on-year CPI inflation decelerated for third straight month to 5.72%. In the
monthly terms the overall prices deflated by 0.45%. The consumer food price index fell year on year
to 4.19% in December.

Recently the Minister of Women and Child Development

dubbed all the schemes under its ambit into three verticals.
Wite an overview of this new structure.
Women and children constitute to 67.7% of India’s population and ensuring their holistic growth and
development is important for attainting a sustainable and equitable development of India. For
achieving this the Ministry of Women and Child Development has subsumed the 19 scheme for the
welfare of women and children into three verticals to be implemented in mission mode. The prime
objective of the Ministry is to address the gaps in the State action for the women and children and to
ensure gender equality and policies and legislations for the welfare of the children as well. It also
aims to ensure better monitoring and efficient implementation of the schemes.
The three verticals are :
1) Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0 is and Integrated Nutrition Support Programme. It aims to
stop the further backsliding of nutrition indices mainly among women and child.The programme
entails- (I) nutrition support to children, adolescent girls, pregnant women , lactating mother (II)early
childhood care and education (III) infrastructure development of anganwadi into Saksham
anganwadi, technological upgradation etc.

Poshan2.0 seeks to address the challenges of malnutrition and provides support through
Supplementary Nutrition Programme. It will integrate various key strategies to fulfil it objectives:
Corrective strategies, Nutrition Awareness strategies, Communication strategies, and Creation of
green ecosystem. The total cost under the mission will be borne by the centre and state in the ratio
60:40 for State/UTs with legislature, 90:10 in North east region and Himalayan States and UT of J&K
and 100% for UTs without legislature.
2) Mission Shakti comprises of two sub-schemes ‘Sambhal’ and ‘Samarthya’. While the (I)‘Sambhal
scheme is for safety and security of the women. The schemes such as One Stop Centre,Women
Helplines, Beti bachao beti padhao have been subsumed under Sambhal. It is a centrally sponsored
scheme with 100% central funding from Nirbhaya Fund.
(II)‘Samarthya’ is for the empowerment of the women.. Whereas the schemes like Shakti Sadan,
Working Women hostel, PM Matru Vandana Yojna are under the Samarthya. It is a centrally
sponsored scheme where the fund ratio will be 60:40 between the centre and the state for the
State/UTs with legislature, 90:10 for North east region and special category states /UTs with
legislature, 100% for UTs without legislature.
3) Mission Vatsalya provides support for delivering services for children in need and in difficult
circumstances universally across the country , develop context – based solutions for holistic
development of children from varied backgrounds. The Child Care Institutions established under the
scheme support education , access to vocational training , recreation . healthcare, counselling and
covers both rural and urban children.

How does Account Aggregator ecosystem work?

An Account Aggregator is a type of RBI regulated entity with NBFC-AA license that helps individual
share and access information digitally from one financial institution they have an account in to other
financial institution that is in the AA network. Data cannot be shared without the consent of the
individual. There are many account aggregators one can choose between. As on date, 94 Financial
institutions have onboarded themselves on Account Aggregator (AA) platform as a Financial
Information User (FIU) out of which 73 are RBI regulated, 10 Securities and Exchange Board of India
regulated, 9 Insurance and Development Authority of India regulated and 2 Pension Fund Regulatory
and Development Authority regulated entities.
Account Aggregation also referred to as financial data aggregation is compilation of various financial
information from the different accounts such as bank account, pension fund repository, credit card
accounts, etc that is stored with the intermediary referred to as the Account aggregator. The main
participants of the AA ecosystem are:
• • Financial Information Provider: entities that have the data on the individual
• • Account aggregator: the intermediary that collects the data from FIP, also compiles and
stores the data.
• • Financial information user: the entities that use the data to provide product and services.

With digitization of the various financial services having the all the financial data stored on a single
platform will only make things easier and smooth. The various uses of Account Aggregator are:
• • there are various types of financial assets that people invest in through various platforms.
These platforms help investing in these wealth assets when provided with the relevant information
required. With account aggregator the all the data from various platforms can be retrieved by the
AA with the consent of the user and compiled and organised into a single readable format that will
help the various service providers with the analysis required.
• • While lending credit the banks require several documents including the salary payslip,
bank statement etc., the banks can pull out the borrowers net worth data from the account
aggregator and hence reduce the entire paper work and processing of the documents.
• • The banks can receive additional data as the investments portfolio , pension fund
repository, and hence better analysis of the credit worthiness of the borrowers
• • AA can also help you keep all your health related documents at one place. Under the
Ayushman Bharat mission every Indian is provided with health ID card , when this is linked with the
AA health related data also unified and provides a consolidated view of both the past and the
present health related data.
• • This health related data can also help the customers in buying insurance with better
premium quotations and help the insurers calculate the required premium.
• • Using AA system a consumer can access many services provided by the financial
institutions through a single interface.

Account Aggregator concept can be the next UPI in India. The Account Aggregator ecosystem has 1.1
billion AA enabled accounts and has already see 2.05 million users voluntarily share their financial
data.
AA will help increasing the credit penetration without the brick and mortar form of the service
providers. With integration of the various sectors into the AA aggregator ecosystem the Digital India
mission will also be achieved . However new guidelines for protection of the data is required as RBI
regulations brings under its purview only the financial data. Open banking system will then be a
viable option in India .