Can emergency alerts be made harder to miss when every phone is already competing for attention? Can agricultural waste be turned into a source of protein?

Four young innovators from Gurugram and Sonipat are exploring answers to these very different challenges — and their ideas have earned them a place among the national Top 40 of the fifth edition of Samsung Solve for Tomorrow.

Nikki Yadav, 19, and Priyanka Yadav, 18, from Gurugram are working on a solution aimed at making emergency alerts more visible and easier to identify. Priyanshu Raj, 22, and Nitish Kumar, 21, from Sonipat are exploring how agricultural waste could be repurposed into a potential source of protein.

Samsung Solve for Tomorrow is Samsung’s flagship CSR innovation programme for young people aged 14 to 22. Through design thinking, mentorship and hands-on learning, the programme helps young innovators identify real-world problems and develop their ideas towards workable prototypes.

Making Emergency Alerts Stand Out

For Nikki and Priyanka, the problem is one familiar to almost everyone with a smartphone: important notifications can easily get lost in the constant stream of digital communication.

Their idea explores how technology could distinguish emergency alerts from routine notifications and make them more prominent, potentially helping people recognise critical information faster when every second matters.

“Samsung Solve for Tomorrow encouraged us to examine the problem from a community perspective. The design-thinking process helped us refine our ideas and strengthen our approach,” said Nikki Yadav.

Finding New Value in Agricultural Waste

In Sonipat, Priyanshu and Nitish are looking at a challenge rooted in agriculture but connected to a much larger question around nutrition.

Their idea explores whether agricultural waste can be repurposed into a potential source of protein. By finding new value in material that might otherwise be discarded, the team is examining an approach that could address two challenges at once — agricultural waste and the need for more sustainable sources of nutrition.

“The mentorship and prototyping support helped us strengthen our idea and better understand how local challenges can be translated into practical innovations,” said Priyanshu Raj and Nitish Kumar.

Haryana Ideas on a National Stage

The two ideas reflect the diversity of problems young innovators are choosing to tackle — one emerging from an increasingly digital urban environment and the other from Haryana’s agricultural landscape.

They are also part of a broader shift visible in this year’s Samsung Solve for Tomorrow. More than half of the national Top 40 teams are from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, bringing ideas shaped by challenges and experiences from different parts of India.

For Samsung Solve for Tomorrow, this widening innovation map is central to the programme: encouraging young people to identify problems they understand firsthand and giving them the tools, mentorship and support to turn those observations into solutions.

The Top 40 teams will now move from ideas towards prototypes, receiving mentorship and hands-on support as they test and refine their concepts and compete for a place in the Top 20.

Collectively, the Top 40 teams will receive INR 8 lakh, while every team member will receive a Samsung Galaxy Book6 Series laptop to support prototype development. They will also participate in a 10-day Innovation Bootcamp at FITT-IIT Delhi, receiving intensive mentoring from startup founders and industry experts.

As part of the Bootcamp, participants will 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, gaining exposure to different parts of Samsung’s innovation ecosystem in India.

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

At the culmination of Samsung Solve for Tomorrow 2026, four winning teams will collectively receive incubation grants worth INR 2 crore, along with incubation support from FITT-IIT Delhi to help take their ideas towards further development and potential market readiness.

For the four young innovators from Haryana, making the national Top 40 marks the beginning of that journey — taking problems they encountered close to home and testing whether their ideas can ultimately solve them at a much larger scale.