The “Millet Start-up Innovation Challenge” is a project to promote young minds in the millet sector by cultivating their creative thinking and inventive ways to address challenges and develop new approaches to position millets as alternative staples throughout the world.

The start-up innovation challenge plans to increase the government of India’s efforts to celebrate IYOM, 2023, and turn it into a popular movement to promote Indian millets, recipes, and value-added goods internationally.

The start-ups, researchers, and students providing innovative technological/ business solutions in the following areas are eligible to participate:

1) Solving Primary Processing Problem: Providing solutions to improve the efficiency of millet processing (dehulling, separation, polishing etc.) while retaining the nutritional value

2) Solving Decentralized Processing Problem: Developing machinery and / or infrastructure for small scale decentralized processing that is affordable and easy to use for farmers, FPOs and consumers.

3) Solving Shelf-Life Augmentation Problem: Developing solutions to improve the shelf life of millets – grains, processed grains, flours etc. to make it comparable to competing crops, Innovative packaging solutions to enhance the shelf life of millets and millet products.

4) Solving Supply Chain Linkages Problem: Developing market linkage solutions using AI, ML, and blockchain to strengthen the supply of inputs (HYV seeds etc.) and outputs (distribution, market access etc.)

5) Producing Innovative millet-based Products: Providing Any new, innovative product development, formulations and standardization in millets such as Functional snacks (Extruded snacks, Extruded flakes, Puffs, Ready to Eat (Protein Bars, Laddu, Pinni, Barfi, Smoothie mix, Ready to Cook (Soups, Millet Sprouted flours, Pre-mixes, Vermicelli, Millet Muesli, Bakery products (a Millet cookies, b) Millet’s bread/bun, c) Millet’s cake, d) Millet’s pizza base etc.)

– Any Indian company incorporated under the Companies Act 1956/2013, primarily a Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) as defined in the MSMED Act, 2006
– Any company registered as a Start-up, as defined, and recognized by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India
– The majority stake (more than 51%) of the applicant entity must be held in India.