Socio technologist Chintan Vaishnav will be taking over as Mission Director of flagship initiative Atal Innovation Mission in mid-April, a NITI Aayog statement said. He will be replacing Ramanathan Ramanan to take over as the second Mission Director of AIM.
An engineer by profession and alumnus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Chintan Vaishnav will be moving from his current researcher and teacher at MIT to head the initiative to boost innovation and entrepreneurship. He has founded multiple organisations and has been actively advising startups, corporations and government on tackling technology, development and public policy challenges.
The NITI Aayog describes Vaishnav as a person trained to understand and build large scale systems and cites his vast experience in innovation.
According to the website, Atal Innovation Mission in the last 4 years has operationalised multiple tinkering labs and incubators that help create an atmosphere of innovation and startups improve their efficiency. It has also collaborated with multiple stakeholders to support its initiatives.