Samsung Solve for Tomorrow Innovation Competition Gets 18,000 Registrations from Youth in India. Youth Say They Want to Drive Social Change

The first phase of Samsung’s Solve for Tomorrow innovation and education competition in India closed earlier this week with over 18,000 registrations from across towns, cities and rural India, showcasing that the youth of India really cares and are ready to drive change.

Sixteen to 22-year-old youth registered for the competition with their innovative technology solutions to solve real-world problems that will have a positive social impact on the lives of people around them.’

We met school and college students from cities such as Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Delhi, Guwahati and Bhubaneswar, Indore, Pune and Jaipur, and they had some really bright ideas to share, wanting to solve for tomorrow.

They showed their concerns regarding the issues that they wanted a solution for. Young students said they want to solve problems around safe collection of waste for recycling, job security for daily wagers, language barriers that young students from remote areas face during e-learning, safe disposal of sanitary napkins, mental health of school students, reusing agricultural waste as well as reusing plastics, finding safer and innovative ways of garbage collection and many other problems that India faces today.

Twenty one-year-old Manash who is an Epilepsy patient saw Solve for Tomorrow as his chance to help patients like himself. He wants to solve mental health issues related to Epilepsy and give everyone a healthier life.

“Getting a chance to work on something that is so close to my heart, feels really special. I am going to motivate my friends to apply as well.” said Manashjit Goswami, who studies Architecture at AIMT, Guwahati.

Nineteen-year-old Vardhini Bandapelly saw Solve for Tomorrow as her chance to take an idea she has had on digital education of primary students to the next level.

“Getting a chance to work on the ideas for a better tomorrow is something that is empowering to me,” said Vardhini, who studies engineering at Guru Nanak Institutions in Hyderabad.

Among the registrations, 32% of youth want to solve problems of healthcare, 28% want to tackle challenges around education, especially better learning opportunities for students, 24% focused on problems around environment while 16% want to solve issues around agriculture.

What’s next?

In the second stage of competition, top 50 teams will be selected and mentored by industry experts and others experts at IIT Delhi to help enhance their ideas, along with a boot-camp at IIT Delhi, a certificate of participation, and vouchers worth INR 100,000 for online courses in design thinking, STEM, innovation, leadership, among others.

From among these, the top 10 teams will get an opportunity to visit Samsung India offices and its R&D centres where they will interact with young Samsung employees and researchers. They will also experience the Samsung product ecosystem at the iconic Samsung Opera House in Bengaluru.’

Three winning teams stand a chance to get mega support of up to INR 1 crore and mentoring support for six months to turn their ideas into action under the expert guidance of IIT Delhi.