The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, has launched a call for startup applications for registration on the MAARG portal, the National Mentorship Platform by Startup India.

To further boost the Indian startup ecosystem, currently ranked 3rd largest globally, Startup India is focused on catalysing the startup culture and building a strong and inclusive ecosystem for innovation and entrepreneurship in India. In this context, MAARG portal - Mentorship, Advisory, Assistance, Resilience and Growth, is a one stop platform to facilitate mentorship for startups across diverse sectors, functions, stages, geographies, and backgrounds. The objectives of the MAARG portal are –

•To provide sector focused guidance, handholding, and support to startups throughout their lifecycle

•To establish a formalized and structured platform that facilitates intelligent matchmaking between the mentors and their respective mentees

•To facilitate efficient and expert mentorship for startups and build an outcome-oriented mechanism that allows timely tracking of the mentor-mentee engagements

Startups can now effectively connect with academicians, industry experts, successful founders, seasoned investors, and other experts from across the globe, through Artificial Intelligence (AI) based matchmaking, to get personalized guidance on growth and strategy. The key features of the portal include customizable mentorship programs for ecosystem enablers, mobile-friendly user interface, recognition for contributing mentors, video and audio call options, etc.

The MAARG Portal is being operationalized in three phases,

1.Phase I: Mentor Onboarding

Successfully launched and executed, 400+ expert mentors are onboarded across sectors

2.Phase II: Startup Onboarding

DPIIT is launching the onboarding of startups on the MAARG Portal with effect from 14th November 2022

3.Phase III: MAARG Portal Launch and Mentor Matchmaking

Final launch where the mentors will be matched to the startups DPIIT has initiated onboarding process of startups under Phase II. All interested startups are encouraged to apply at https://maarg.startupindia.gov.in.

Innovations are the inevitable engines of growth for a nation, and India alone is home to more than 82,000+ DPIIT recognised startups and over 107 Unicorns. Entrepreneurship is the foundation of our great nation’s economic wealth and prosperity, and we are quickly transforming from a nation of job seekers to a nation of job creators.

Hon’ble Prime Minister has called for the construction of 75 Amrit Sarovars (ponds) in each district of the country.

Each Amrit Sarovar will have pondage area of minimum of 1 acre (0.4 hectare) with water holding capacity of about 10,000 cubic meter.

All rural districts will develop having at least 75 Amrit Sarovars totalling about 1,00,000 Amrit Sarovars in the country.

In order to optimize the benefit of the Amrit Sarovars and to ensure that the implementation is done in the most credible manner, latest and most relevant technologies like remote sensing and geospatial will be used extensively from site selection till its completion.

If the district is unable to create as many new Amrit Sarovars, then district may take up rejuvenation of the existing structures for restoring their ecological and productive utility.

A joint advisory was issued to all the Chief Secretaries for utilisation of soil and silt excavated from Amrit Sarovar sites for infrastructure projects such as projects of Railways, NHAI, MoRTH and other public agencies.

Railways and MoRTH have started mapping the infrastructure projects with Amrit Sarovar sites. As of now, more than 857 Railways Project and 674MoRTH projects are mapped so far and around 745 Railway projects and 46 MoRTH are using the soil from these sites.

All Amrit Sarovar constructed/rejuvenated will be geo-tagged at three different phases i.e. before the construction, during the construction and after the completion of asset creation using GeoMGNREGA app of Mahatma Gandhi NREGS.

Commemorative plantation of tree such as Neem (Azadirachta Indica),Peepal (Ficus Religiosa), Bargad (Ficus Benghalensis) etc. should be done at Amrit Sarovar work site on 15thAugust, 2022 by freedom fighter or her/his family member or by the family of martyr (post-independence) or a local padma awardee. In case there is no such citizen available, the eldest citizen of the specific/local gram Panchayat should be requested to lead the plantation.

Foundation stone for the Amrit Sarovar will be led by freedom fighter or her/his family member or by the family of martyr (postindependence) or a local padma awardee. In case there is no such citizen available, the eldest citizen of the specific/local gram Panchayat to be engaged.

People may also participate by donating construction material, benches and by Shram Daan. It may also seek such support through crowd sourcing and CSR contributions. If village community desires beautification works on the Sarovar site, it may mobilize necessary donations.

On the occasion of every Independence Day (i.e. on 15th August)Tricolor to be hoisted at Amrit Sarovar worksite, by the freedom fighter or his/her family member or by the family member of martyr or a local Padma Awardee.

A dedicated set of Prabharis, comprising Panchayat Pratinidhi (PP) and Panchayat Level Officer (PLO) is allocated to every identified Amrit Sarovar.

Panchayat Pratinidhi is nominated by Gram Panchayat who acts as citizen supervisor and is responsible for faithful and fair execution of the Amrit Sarovar in the Panchayat while protecting the community interest.

Resources for this activity available from Mahatma Gandhi NREGS, XV Finance Commission Grants (both tied and untied), PMKSYWDC, PMKSY-HKKP-RRR or similar schemes from the State/ Central Govt. either individually or in combination may be accessed for this purpose. Public contribution (crowd funding/CSR) for the work is also allowed.

Possible users of such water structure, including for irrigation, fishery or water chestnut cultivation, should be identified and creation of their group encouraged.

There should be full involvement of such association(s) during the entire process of development of Amrit Sarovar viz. feasibility assessment, execution, or its utilization.

Adhyaksha/Collector/CEO will felicitate all such Gram Panchayats after construction/rejuvenation of Amrit Sarovar.

Construction of more than 25,000 Amrit Sarovars have been completed within the 6 months of the launch of Mission Amrit Sarovar.

A target has been set to build 50,000 Amrit Sarovars by 15th August, 2023.

As on 17th November, 2022 about 90,531 sites have been identified for the construction of Amrit Sarovars, out of which work has been started on 52,245 sites. This number reflects the collective commitment towards rainwater conservation in the form of Amrit Sarovars.

An Amrit Sarovar portal has been created to capture all the activities taking place in Mission Amrit Sarovar, whose link is https://water.ncog.gov.in/AmritSarovar/login.

Mission Amrit Sarovar was launched on 24th April, 2022 with the resolve to build 75 Amrit Sarovars on the call of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi in every district of the country during the 75th year of independence as a part of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, to overcome the water crisis in rural areas of the country.

Mission Amrit Sarovar is a mission based on a ‘Whole of Government’ approach, in which The Ministry of Rural Development along with the Ministry of Jal Shakti, Ministry of Panchayati Raj and Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India are working together with technical collaboration of Bhaskaracharya National Institute of Space Applications and Geo-Informatics (BISAG-N).

'Jan Bhagidari' is at the heart of Mission Amrit Sarovar, therefore, it involves people's participation at all levels.

Since the beginning of the mission, the foundation stone of Amrit Sarovar has been laid by freedom fighters and their families or families of martyrs or Padma awardees or the oldest person of the gram panchayat.

Commemorative plantation of trees such as neem, peepal, banyan etc. has been carried out at Amrit Sarovar sites through public participation.

In view of this, on 15 August, this year, Independence Day was celebrated and the tricolor was hoisted at Amrit Sarovar sites in the presence of villagers and public representatives and various programs were organized.

The rural economy will also be strengthened by the construction of multi-purpose Amrit Sarovars.

It will enable fish farming, cultivation of Fox Nut in the lake and allow higher production of food grains due to an adequate irrigation system.