New Delhi, July 18: In view of strong response coming in, the government has extended the last date for submission of entries for the 'AatmaNirbhar Bharat App Innovation Challenge' to July 26, 2020. According to an official release, 2,353 entries have so far been received across the eight categories identified.

IT and Communications Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has also tweeted.

"Keeping in view the enthusiastic participation from app developers and innovators the last date for submitting your entries for #AatmaNirbharBharat App Innovation Challenge has been extended to 26th July, 2020". PM Narendra Modi Launches Aatmanirbhar Bharat App Innovation Challenge, Urges Technology and Startup Communities to Participate.

The challenge is hosted on the Innovate Portal of MyGov. It may be recalled that the deadline for submission of entries was previously July 18, which has now been extended.

"AatmaNirbhar Bharat App Innovation Challenge, launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on July 4 has seen a very enthusiastic response from tech entrepreneurs and startups from across the country. So far, 2,353 entries have been received across the eight categories identified," an official statement added.

These include 1,496 entries from individuals and about 857 from organisations and companies. Among those received from individuals, around 788 applications are ready to use and the remaining 708 are under development.

The category-wise breakup of the apps submitted includes 380 under business, 286 health and wellness, 339 e-learning, 414 social networking, 136 games, 238 office and work from home, 75 news and 96 under entertainment category.

Around 389 apps have been submitted under the 'others' category. Around 100 of these apps have more than 100,000 downloads, the official statement added.

The statement further said that the AatmaNirbhar Bharat App ecosystem has the potential to unlock value for the Indian tech startups and help them get a pie of the multi trillion-dollar app economy.

"Just the top three companies with maximum downloads of apps this year have a total market cap of almost USD 2 trillion and are growing very fast," it said. The applicants for the challenge are from all over the country including remote and small towns.

This shows the talent that exists in our country and this App Innovation Challenge is the right opportunity for Indian tech developers, entrepreneurs and companies to build for India at a scale, that is unparalleled anywhere in the world, the statement said.

The true challenge will be to identify the apps that are robust, scalable, secure with an easy to use interface and give users an experience that will make them come back to the app, it added.