From Varanasi and Prayagraj to Raebareli, young innovators from Uttar Pradesh are showing that some of India’s most promising ideas can emerge from anywhere.

Four young innovators from the state have made it to the national Top 40 of the fifth edition of Samsung Solve for Tomorrow with ideas addressing challenges ranging from document literacy and housing design to emerging cybersecurity threats and digital public safety.

Samsung Solve for Tomorrow is Samsung’s flagship CSR innovation programme for young people aged 14 to 22. Implemented in partnership with FITT-IIT Delhi, the programme enables young innovators from across India to identify real-world challenges and develop potential solutions through human-centred design, mentorship, technology and hands-on prototyping.

From Local Problems to Potential Solutions

In Varanasi, 18-year-old Abhinav Jaiswal is working on a solution to make important documents easier to understand for people who may struggle with complex written information.

In Prayagraj, 19-year-old Mohd Sarfraz is developing an AI-assisted housing design solution focused on practical challenges faced in densely populated Indian neighbourhoods, including structural planning and ventilation.

And in Raebareli, Akul Attre, 21, and Saksham Shreyans, 20, are exploring emerging cybersecurity threats associated with encrypted data and ways to strengthen digital public safety.

Different cities. Different challenges. But the ideas share a common starting point: problems observed close to home.

Their achievement reflects a larger shift visible in this year’s programme. More than half of the national Top 40 teams are from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, demonstrating how young people from across India are increasingly using technology to solve problems they encounter in their communities.

For Uttar Pradesh, the presence of young innovators from Varanasi, Prayagraj and Raebareli among the national Top 40 is also a source of regional pride — and a sign of how India’s innovation map is expanding beyond its traditional technology hubs.

For Abhinav Jaiswal from Varanasi, the challenge is document literacy. Important documents can often be difficult for illiterate and semi-literate Indians to understand, particularly before signing them. His solution explores how technology can make such information easier to understand and help people make more informed decisions.

For Mohd Sarfraz, the focus is on using AI to address practical challenges in housing design.

Meanwhile, Akul Attre and Saksham Shreyans are working on their solution around cybersecurity and digital public safety.

Through Samsung Solve for Tomorrow, these young innovators are getting the platform, mentorship and technology support to understand the challenges more deeply, test their ideas and turn them into potential solutions.

The Top 40 teams will now participate in a 10-day Innovation Bootcamp, where they will receive intensive mentoring from startup founders and industry experts at FITT-IIT Delhi. As part of the Bootcamp, the teams will also get an opportunity to visit Samsung R&D Institute India – Delhi, Samsung R&D Institute India – Noida, Samsung R&D Institute India – Bangalore, Samsung Design Delhi, and Samsung’s Regional Headquarters in Gurugram.

The teams will then compete for a place in the Top 20, which will receive further support to strengthen and advance their solutions ahead of the Grand Finale.

At the culmination of the programme, the four winning teams will collectively receive incubation grants worth INR 2 crore, along with incubation support from FITT-IIT Delhi, helping them take their solutions towards further development and market-ready.

As Samsung marks 30 years in India, Solve for Tomorrow reflects its commitment to nurturing a new generation of innovators across the country. By bringing mentorship, design thinking, technology and prototyping support to young people wherever they are, the programme is helping promising ideas move from communities towards solutions with wider potential.

For Uttar Pradesh’s young innovators, the journey to the national Top 40 carries a powerful message: an idea capable of solving a national challenge can begin in Varanasi, Prayagraj or Raebareli.

At an education and innovation roadshow organized by Samsung India at Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology in Prayagraj, 500 enthusiastic young college students said they want to solve some of the most pressing problems that people and communities across the state and the country are facing today. This was a roadshow organized around the second season of Samsung Solve for Tomorrow competition.

Students in Prayagraj, who came from various colleges such as Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology, IICS College, Ganga Bal V. Inter College, Swar Saran Degree College and Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Govt. Degree College said they want to solve real-world problems such as finding sustainable energy resources to reduce the usage of coal & other fossil fuels, digitization of land records, and finding alternative fuels like Hydrogen & other resources for ICE engines in automobiles.

At the event, which was organized to talk about Samsung’s global CSR program Solve for Tomorrow, the students said they require platforms such as Solve for Tomorrow to guide and support them in turning their ideas into action. They spoke about the innovative tech they could deploy to find solutions to the problems.

Samsung had recently announced its partnership with Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology’s (MeitY’s) Startup Hub and Foundation for Innovation & Technology Transfer (FITT), IIT Delhi for the second season of the national education and innovation competition Solve for Tomorrow. With Solve for Tomorrow, Samsung aims to usher in a culture of innovative thinking and problem-solving amongst the country’s youth.

The top three teams will win INR 1.5 crore to turn their ideas into action while others participants who reach top 30 and top 10 will be rewarded at various stages of the program.

The second season of Solve for Tomorrow is inviting applications from youth in India aged 16-22 years under the themes of Education & Learning, Environment & Sustainability, Health & Wellness and Diversity & Inclusion. Youth can apply for Samsung Solve for Tomorrow on www.samsung.com/in/solvefortomorrow starting April 04, 2023 till 5 pm on May 31, 2023.

“At Samsung, harnessing the power of youth is priority for us. This is what drives us and our global CSR vision of ‘Together for Tomorrow! Enabling People’. Giving youth a voice in real-life issues affecting communities around them allows them to see firsthand the change they can create in the world. With Samsung Solve for Tomorrow, we want to give youth that opportunity and also play our part in strengthening the innovation ecosystem in the country, taking forward the vision of the Government and our own vision of Powering Digital India,” said Mr. Hyun Kim, Corporate Vice President, Samsung Southwest Asia.

City-based innovator Bhanu Pratap Singh, who is the founder and CEO of startup CashCry, spoke to the students about the value of both success and failure and how he has been working in rural areas to bring financial inclusion to the masses. He urged students to look at problems that India faces and Solve for Tomorrow with their unique solutions.

Samsung Solve for Tomorrow at a Glance

Who can participate: 16-22 year-olds, individually or in teams of up to 3

Application themes: Education & Learning, Environment & Sustainability, Health & Wellness and Diversity & Inclusion

What will they get: Online training, Bootcamp at IIT Delhi, mentoring & training from Samsung, IIT Delhi,
and MeitY Startup Hub

What do winners get: Total of INR 1.5 crore to 3 winning teams and exciting Samsung products that will boost their productivity

Where can they apply: www.samsung.com/in/solvefortomorrow

From when: Starting April 04, 2023

Till when: Till 5 pm on May 31, 2023

Program Details 

Application Window – Round One

Individuals or teams of up to three can submit their applications on www.samsung.com/in/solvefortomorrow, where they will chose the theme, elaborate on the problem they are solving, the proposed solution and its social impact. A jury comprising subject matter experts from FITT, IIT Delhi will shortlist the top 30 teams from among all the applications received.

Idea Development – Round Two

In this round, the top 30 shortlisted teams will attend a five-day bootcamp at the IIT Delhi campus where they will receive training on Design Thinking by FITT, IIT Delhi and on innovation & IPR, patents from MeitY Startup Hub.

Each team will get INR 20,000 to create initial prototypes and then pitch their ideas to a jury comprising of young Samsung employees and experts from FITT, IIT Delhi, MeitY Startup Hub and Atal Innovation Mission at the bootcamp who will select the top 10 teams.

These 30 teams will also visit Samsung India offices, its R&D centres, design centre, and Samsung Opera House in Bengaluru where they will interact with young Samsung employees and researchers. Each member of the top 30 teams will get a certificate for attending the bootcamp, a Samsung Galaxy Book laptop and Galaxy Buds.

Final Prototype Building – Round Three

In this round, the top 10 teams will get INR 100,000 each to enhance their prototypes based on the feedback from jury members as well as mentors. They will also be mentored by Samsung employees from various domains as well as domain experts from IIT Delhi.

At the end of this round, the teams will submit their final prototypes and prepare for a live presentation where they will pitch their ideas at the Finale Event before an eminent jury.

Each member of the top 10 teams will get a certificate and a Samsung Galaxy Z Flip smartphone. The top three winning teams of Solve for Tomorrow season two will win a total prize money of INR 1.5 crore

Samsung Electronics’ global CSR vision of ‘Together for Tomorrow! Enabling People’ is committed to providing education to young people around the world to empower the leaders of tomorrow. Read more stories on Samsung Electronics’ CSR efforts on our CSR webpage http://csr.samsung.com.