The purpose of the boot camps is to prepare the students for the upcoming final pitching competition by teaching them how to make a strong argument.
The Prime Minister’s National Innovation Award (PMNIA) candidates are participating in Idea Pitching Boot Camps offered by the Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan.
The purpose of the boot camps is to prepare the students for the upcoming final pitching competition by teaching them how to make a strong argument. Students are being mentored by relevant industry professionals.
The applicants were chosen from a pool of about 13,000 applications submitted online at www.pmyp.gov.pk. During the months of October and November 2022, students between the ages of 15 and 30 submitted applications for the PMNIA round-l.
Applications for a variety of cutting-edge concepts, including but not limited to information technology, renewable energy, food security, water management, etc., were received. A competitive, open, rigorous, transparent, competitive, and merit-based process will be used to make the final award decisions.
The process will result in the selection of 50 ideas, and a single startup will receive a maximum of Rs. 2 million, split into two equal amounts. The top 10 ideas will initially each receive up to Rs. 1 million, while the remaining 40 ideas will each receive up to Rs. 0.5 million.
Each of the 50 winners will be eligible to apply for up to Rs. 1 million in additional funding during the corresponding phase, which they can use however they see fit through business incubator centers in exchange for startup deliverables.
The five-day idea-pitching boot camp, which began on February 6 and will last until February 10, is being attended by about 256 candidates and is being held concurrently at five higher education institutions (HEIs), including the Institute of Business Administration in Karachi, the University of Engineering and Technology in Lahore, the Institute of Management Sciences in Peshawar, the Balochistan University of Information Technology, Engineering, and Management Sciences in Quetta, and the National University of Singapore.