76 start-ups onboarded to address water challenges in urban sector

The Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs (MoHUA) has onboarded 76 startups under the ‘India Water Pitch-Pilot-Scale Start-Up Challenge.’

The shortlisted start-ups will be provided financial support of up to Rs 20 lakh each to work in the fields of water supply, used water management, water body rejuvenation, groundwater management, etc, Hardeep Singh Puri, Union Minister of MoHUA, announced at an event in Delhi. 

The startups have been picked based on a challenge launched in March this year under AMRUT 2.0 Mission. Furthermore, the ministry has also launched ‘Startup Gateway’ wherein the start-ups can apply and be shortlisted by MoHUA for financial support.

Mission AMRUT 2.0

New and emerging technologies especially from the start-up ecosystem have been providing unique solutions to the various gaps in the country. 

The MoHUA launched this program in a bid to harness this ecosystem for “achieving the objectives of Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation 2.0 (AMRUT 2.0) i.e., ‘Water Secure Cities’, developing innovative solutions and addressing complexities in the urban water and wastewater sector.”

AMRUT 2.0 was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in October last year. As part of the challenge, the objective was to identify technological and business solutions, endorse viable solutions that are suitable to different geographies, etc, promote the Make in India initiative, and more. 

Startups working across freshwater systems, hydro informatics, used water management, urban water management, water metering, water governance, and similar fields applied out of which 76 got selected. 

In the same event, the ministry also launched a Toolkit for ‘Pey Jal Survekshan’ in 485 cities along with the Urban Waterbody Information System (UWaIS) portal with help from the National Remote Sensing Centre, Hyderabad. 

In January this year, the PM called startups the “backbone” of India while declaring January 16 National Startup Day. According to data released by the Commerce Ministry, there are 72,993 startups in India as on June 30, 2022. 

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