Prime Minister Narendra Modi distributed awards to the winners of 'Ayush Start-up Challenge’ organised by the All India Institute of Ayurveda (AIIA) in association with Start-up India. The challenge was launched on February 4, 2022. The main aim of the challenge is to encourage early-stage start-ups and individuals working on innovations in Ayurveda and other alternative healing and medicine systems.  

There were three entry categories for participating in the challenge - Ayush Food Innovations, Ayush Bio-instrumentation (Hardware solutions) and Ayush IT Solutions (Software solutions). There were two winners in each of the three categories with a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh for the winner and Rs 50,000 for the runner-up. Overall, there were six winners. 

Under the ‘Food Innovations in Ayush Sector: Ready to Eat Nutritious Ayurveda Ahara (Food)’ category Ayur Foods won the first prize for developing Therapeutic Ayurveda Nutraceuticals. Priya Nitin Gokhale bagged the first prize in ‘Ayush Bio-instrumentation (Hardware Solutions) and Innovations in Healthcare’ category for Thermoregulator for sudation chamber. Nadipulse Prognostics grabbed the first for Nadiyantra- pulse diagnosis in ‘Ayush IT Solutions in the areas of Artificial Intelligence (AI) based solutions in Ayurveda Diagnostics, Virtual reality, Biosensors & Trackers’. 

The incubation support would entitle winners to tap into the vast knowledge and resource pool of AIIA across the three wings of the institute, namely research, academics, and hospital. The ‘Ayush Start-up Challenge’ was open for participation from both early-stage start-ups as well as individuals as a group. A group of three to five individuals was allowed to participate in the programme.