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‘The collaboration between AIM and Hitachi MGRM Net Ltd will be instrumental in realisation of PM Modi’s vision for a Viksit Bharat,’ says Niti Aayog.
The Statement of Intent (SoI) was signed by Deepak Bagla, director of AIM Mission, (left) and Bharat Kaushal, executive chairman of Hitachi India and managing director of Hitachi MGRM Net Ltd.
The Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), under the NITI Aayog, has partnered with Hitachi MGRM Net Ltd to build a national digital platform designed to democratise access to innovation and entrepreneurship, according to a statement on Thursday. The two organisations signed a Statement of Intent (SoI) on December 1, 2025, to jointly develop and deploy the ‘MStarTM Global AI Connect’ platform, which will leverage artificial intelligence to connect students, educators, incubators and industry.
The SoI was signed by Deepak Bagla, director of AIM Mission, and Bharat Kaushal, executive chairman of Hitachi India and managing director of Hitachi MGRM Net Ltd.
“The collaboration between AIM and Hitachi MGRM Net Ltd. will be instrumental in realisation of the prime minister’s vision for a ‘Viksit Bharat’. It will enable building a federated, national-scale digital backbone that links together schools throughout rural, suburban, and urban areas within India to mentors, research institutions, incubators, accelerators, and industry players. The visionary goal of this initiative is to build out the school-to-startup pipeline, accelerate the lab-to-market translation of Indian innovations, and ensure that Indian innovations are exportable,” the Niti Aayog said in a statement.
Speaking at the signing event, Bagla said the initiative expands AIM’s mission of nurturing innovation at scale.
“Atal Innovation Mission has always believed that every child is a potential innovator. This partnership will help us identify and foster this potential in our young people. It will enable us to move from isolated success stories to a structured, scalable and inclusive pipeline of innovators, startups and job creators. It will help achieve the vision of Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi under the Atal Innovation Mission, to make innovation a nationwide movement starting from our schools,” Bagla added.
AI-Powered Innovation Network For Students
Hitachi MGRM Net said the proposed digital backbone aims to make innovation accessible to students by linking them to mentors and industry players through a multilingual, accessible platform.
“Our vision with MStarTM Global AI Connect is simple: to put a problem-solving and innovation attitude into the minds and hands of every willing child in India, and to give them a network to reach mentors, incubators, industry and markets. We are honoured to work with NITI Aayog and Atal Innovation Mission to build a platform that is inclusive by design—multilingual, accessible, and aligned to India’s long-term development goals,” said Bharat Kaushal, executive chairman of Hitachi India.
The parties said they will jointly support current and future AIM programmes, strengthen the innovation ecosystem, and integrate national resources to enhance teacher capacity, technical skilling and entrepreneurship training.
Key Features of the Partnership
The initiative outlines a set of broad objectives intended to strengthen the innovation landscape:
- Universal Reach: Facilitating nationwide enrolment of schools, students, mentors, institutions, incubators/accelerators, and partners with multilingual access and low-friction onboarding, including rural and underserved areas.
- Virtual-physical fusion: Creating virtual ATLs (vATLs) and virtual AlCS/AClCs linked to physical nodes to expand participation, access to resources, and remote mentorship.
- End-to-end lifecycle: Orchestrating ideation-to-pilot workflows, Technology/ln novation Readiness Levels (TRUIRL) tracking, milestone reviews, challenge grants, and procurement pathways.
- Talent pathways: identifying and nurturing gifted, talented, and skill-ready learners; embedding design thinking and problem-solving through projects, challenges, and hackathons.
- lP and market linkages: Enabling lP creation/filing, ethical research practice, investor connects, CSR/grants, public procurement, and export facilitation. Public-value analytics: Delivering policy-grade insight on inclusion, skills, lPs, startups, jobs, and trade to inform Centre- and State-level decision-making.
The initiative aims to integrate India’s fragmented innovation assets and align them with long-term development goals. The partners said the platform will enable IP creation, support frontier-technology skilling, and foster “future-ready talent” at scale.
They added that the SoI signifies a joint commitment to build a national innovation backbone that is inclusive and accessible.
According to the statement, “This SoI reiterates the commitment of AIM in democratizing access to innovation and entrepreneurship, and Hitachi MGRM Net to developing digital public-value platforms for national impact.”
Click here to add News18 as your preferred news source on Google. December 04, 2025, 16:50 IST
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