5,000 Atal Tinkering labs to be set up by March 2019
New Delhi, May 10: To promote innovation among students, the NITI Aayog will set up 5,000 Atal Tinkering Labs (ATLs) by March 2019 covering all districts in the country, NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Rajiv Kumar said on Thursday.
Kumar's remarks came during an event showcasing top 30 innovations by school students which emerged out of the six-month-long nationwide Atal Tinkering Marathon conducted in over 2,000 such labs set up till now.
NITI Aayog had in December selected an additional 1,500 schools for setting up ATLs under the government's flagship programme Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) taking the total number of such labs to 2,441. Kumar said the government aims to increase the number of labs to 30,000.
The government think-tank had organised the innovation marathon to identify India's best student innovators across six different thematic areas including clean energy, water resources, waste management, healthcare, smart mobility and agri-tech.
While releasing a booklet on the eve of the National Technology Day featuring the top 30 innovations by students, mentors, teachers and schools, Kumar said if India continues on the path of innovation, a new era will come where India will become "an innovative society rather than an imitative society".
AIM Mission Director Ramanan Ramanathan said the top 30 teams were being awarded with several prizes including a three month-long Atal Tinkering Lab Student Innovator Programme (ATL-SIP) in partnership with industry and start-up incubators.
"The goal of the student innovator programme is to test the innovations in the community. Students will be trained on business and entrepreneurship skills, including intellectual property, effective communication, making an elevator pitch and so on," he said.
"Additionally, ATL schools will be offered a participation voucher to World Robotics Olympiad (WRO), which is a global innovation challenge," he added.
“From over 650 innovations, top 100 were shortlisted based on novelty and prototype functionality, which were further shortlisted to 30 innovations. Atal Tinkering Labs are innovation play workspaces for students between grade 8 to 12, stimulating innovations combining science and technology. Their aim is to promote innovation and entrepreneurship in schools, universities and industry,” he said.
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Chinese astronauts return to earth safely after six-month stint in space station
Beijing, Nov 4: Three Chinese astronauts who spent six months developing China’s low orbit space station returned to Earth safely early Monday, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) said.
The capsule of the spaceship Shenzhou-18' carrying astronauts Ye Guangfu, Li Cong and Li Guangsu, touched down at the Dongfeng landing site in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region at 1:24 am (Beijing Time).
The three astronauts, after staying in orbit for 192 days, were all in good health and the Shenzhou-18 manned mission was a success, the CMSA said.
Ye, the Shenzhou-18 mission commander, has become the first Chinese astronaut with an accumulative spaceflight time of more than a year, setting a new record for the longest duration of stay in orbit by a Chinese astronaut.
He served as a crew member in the Shenzhou-13 mission from October 2021 to April 2022.
"Chinese astronauts have flown to space in successive missions. I believe that the record of the duration in orbit will be broken in the near future," Ye said.
Another astronaut Li Guangsu said that they grew two types of plants -- cherry tomatoes and lettuce -- and they had harvested some lettuce leaves for food.
"Being able to eat fresh vegetables in space is truly a blessing. These green plants have also brought a touch of green and good cheer to our busy work," Li was quoted by state-run Xinhua news agency.
China launched the Shenzhou-18 manned spaceship in April this year.
During the mission, the Shenzhou-18 crew utilised the scientific experiment cabinets and extravehicular payloads to carry out dozens of experiments in the fields of basic physics in microgravity, space material science, space life science, space medicine and space technology, Xinhua report said.
The three were relieved by another set of three Chinese astronauts, including a woman who docked with the orbiting space station on October 30.
China changes crew for the station every six months.
China built its space station after it was reportedly excluded from the International Space Station (ISS) over concerns that China's space programme is manned by its military, the People's Liberation Army, (PLA).
The two robotic arms of the station, especially the long one which has the ability to grab objects including satellites from space, drew international concerns.
Early this month China announced its plans for the further development of space programmes which included launching a manned lunar mission, construction of a lunar space station, exploration of habitable planets and extra-terrestrial life to expand its space programme in the next few decades.
