Important Facts For Prelims
Swachhata Start-Up Challenge
- 28 Jan 2022
- 4 min read
Why in News
Recently, the Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs (MoHUA), in partnership with the Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) and Agence Française de Développement (AFD) launched the Swachhata Start-Up Challenge under Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban 2.0.
Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban 2.0
- SBM-U 2.0 was launched on 1st October 2021 to achieve the vision of ‘Garbage Free Cities’ over the next five years.
- It focuses on source segregation of garbage, reduction in single-use plastic and air pollution, by effectively managing waste from construction and demolition activities and bioremediation of all legacy dump sites.
- Under this mission, all wastewater will be treated properly before it is discharged into water bodies, and the government is trying to make maximum reuse a priority.
Key Points
- About:
- It has been launched to provide an impetus to innovative start-ups to come forward and drive catalytic transformation in the sanitation and waste management sector.
- The Challenge invites solutions across four thematic areas viz. (i) social inclusion, (ii) zero dump (solid waste management), (iii) plastic waste management and(iv) transparency through digital enablement.
- It seeks to promote an enabling environment for enterprise development under SBM-U 2.0.
- The French Development Agency (AFD) will provide seed funding to the tune of 25 lakh rupees and one year of customised support to each of the 10 selected start-ups.
- With the appetite for risk and spirit of innovation at its core, the start-up space holds immense potential to revolutionise India’s waste management sector.
- It is in line with Atmanirbhar Bharat and Make in India.
- It has been launched to provide an impetus to innovative start-ups to come forward and drive catalytic transformation in the sanitation and waste management sector.
- Objectives:
- It aims to capitalise on the start-up movement by providing opportunities for entrepreneurship to young innovators to create socially impactful and market ready business solutions.
- Significance:
- This initiative comes at a time when France and the EU (European Union) are looking to work closely with India on the international stage to negotiate a global treaty on plastic pollution.
- It is also significant because today, the start-up space is evolving rapidly with India leading the world with over 70 unicorns (crossing the valuation of USD 1 billion).
Initiatives to Tackle Plastic Pollution
- On World Environment Day (5th June), 2018 the world leaders vowed to “Beat Plastic Pollution” & eliminate its use completely.
- The Group of 20 (G20) environment ministers, agreed to adopt a new implementation framework for actions to tackle the issue of marine plastic waste on a global scale.
- India’s Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016 state that every local body has to be responsible for setting up infrastructure for segregation, collection, processing, and disposal of plastic waste.
- Plastic Waste Management (Amendment) Rules 2018 introduced the concept of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR).
- A new national framework on plastic waste management is in the works, which will introduce third-party audits as part of the monitoring mechanism.
- India Plastics Pact, the first in Asia, was launched in September 2021 in collaboration with Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) and World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) to set time-bound commitments to reduce plastics from their value chains.
