Women entrepreneurs: MSME Minister Narayan Rane has invited women entrepreneurs including women innovators and women-owned MSMEs to apply for the MSME Idea Hackathon 3.0. Rane urged women entrepreneurs to apply for the hackathon for access to financial assistance up to Rs 15 lakh. The hackathon was opened for applications in June this year and the last date for application was August 10.
“Last chance to apply for MSME Idea Hackathon 3.0. Calling women innovators & women-owned MSMEs: Your groundbreaking ideas can give you a chance to secure financial assistance of up to ₹15 lakhs,” Rane said on X (formerly Twitter).
The hackathon 3.0 is being conducted under the MSME Innovative Scheme by the MSME Ministry. The financial assistance of Rs 15 lakh will be provided per idea, through host institution chosen by them. For the implementation of the scheme, the institutions approved for the scheme will be supported by the Office of DC-MSME.
The hackathon invites ideas from the field of the services sector, agriculture sector, healthcare sector, power sector, and miscellaneous sectors.
Stage one of the hackathon will include the submission of ideas to the host institutions who will shortlist meritorious ideas and forward them to the ministry. For evaluation, the institutions will create a group of three to five panellists with industry expertise.
Stage two will include the ministry screening the ideas selected by the institutions to check for relevant and appropriate information, obligatory conditions as per the scheme guidelines, and check for ideas with incomplete/incoherent information. The screened ideas will be forwarded to the Domain Expert Selection Committees (DESCs).
The DESCs will constitute domain experts from the industry, one expert from the MSME DFO, and one member from the program division for all five domains: services sector, agriculture sector, healthcare sector, power sector, and miscellaneous sectors. The DESCs will evaluate ideas and will recommend them to the PMAC (Project Monitoring and Advisory Committee) for final approval. The PMAC will then approve the ideas and grant the financial support as per the guidelines of the scheme.