India’s sporting ecosystem for para-athletes has seen growing attention on identifying and supporting them beyond established sporting centres, but discovering talent can still be difficult when specialised scouting and performance evaluation are not easily accessible. For 21-year-old Vatala Harika and 20-year-old Ritesh Routray from Sundargarh, Odisha, this gap led them to explore whether technology could help promising para-athletes get noticed.

The two young innovators have made it to the national Top 40 of the fifth edition of Samsung Solve for Tomorrow with ParaSync, an AI-powered solution that explores how smartphone-recorded sporting performances can be analysed to help identify para-athletic talent and connect promising athletes with coaches and scouts.

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 enables young innovators from across India to identify real-world challenges and develop potential solutions, helping them take ideas from the early stages towards prototypes.

From Limited Scouting to Greater Visibility

For Harika and Ritesh, the challenge is the limited access to specialised scouting and evaluation for para-athletes outside established sporting centres. ParaSync allows athletes to record or upload videos of their sporting performance, with computer vision designed to analyse movement and sporting technique.
The idea explores how this information could help coaches and scouts assess athletes remotely, creating another way for promising para-athletes to gain visibility without first having to reach major sporting centres.

Under the Sport & Tech theme, ParaSync explores how emerging technology could be applied to a practical challenge around access, inclusion and opportunity in sport.

Harika and Ritesh’s journey is also part of a wider shift within Samsung Solve for Tomorrow. More than half of this year’s national Top 40 teams are from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, highlighting how young people across India are bringing their own experiences to challenges that matter to their communities.

For Odisha, the selection of Harika and Ritesh from Sundargarh highlights how young people are applying technology to address gaps in access and opportunity. ParaSync brings together AI and sport to explore how promising para-athletic talent could gain greater visibility beyond established scouting networks.

Samsung Solve for Tomorrow gives young innovators access to mentorship, technology, design-thinking skills and a platform to take their solutions forward. The Top 40 teams will now participate in a 10-day Innovation Bootcamp, receiving intensive mentoring from startup founders and industry experts at FITT-IIT Delhi. They will also visit Samsung R&D Institute India – Delhi, Noida and 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 their solutions ahead of the Grand Finale.

At the culmination of the programme, 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 readiness.

Six teams from Tamil Nadu have earned a place among the national Top 40 of the fifth edition of Samsung Solve for Tomorrow, bringing forward solutions that use AI, IoT, wearable technology and other innovations to address real-world challenges in their communities.

Sajith J, Mithran B, Kavin Nanadha M K, Sanjay Kumaar, G B Aswindbaghat, Varunprasath K, Nirmalkumar V, Gokul Appusamy, Mohanbabu J, Manoj Kumar Kasinathan, Jena R, Chriswin William D, Nishiithaa G, Dhiikshanyaa G, R S Adhidhiya, Rahul R and Hemanthth P are among the young innovators behind these six solutions, which span education, road safety, healthcare, mobility and rehabilitation.

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 enables young innovators from across India to identify real-world challenges and develop potential solutions, helping them take solutions from the early stages towards prototypes.

Six Teams, Seventeen Young Innovators

For 20-year-old Sajith J, 20-year-old Mithran B and 20-year-old Kavin Nanadha M K, the focus is access to essential information. The team is developing an AI-powered solution that explores how complex healthcare, government scheme and educational information can be converted into simple, spoken lessons in Indian languages, allowing people to access information through voice rather than relying on reading or navigating complex applications.

Twenty-year-olds Sanjay Kumaar, G B Aswindbaghat and Varunprasath K are developing an AI-powered road-safety solution using smartphone technology, IoT and sensor data to identify road hazards such as potholes, waterlogging and damaged roads. The solution explores how real-time information could help authorities prioritise risks while giving commuters safer route recommendations.

For 19-year-old Nirmalkumar V, 18-year-old Gokul Appusamy and 19-year-old Mohanbabu J, the focus is the classroom. The team is developing a low-cost system that can turn existing projectors and classroom surfaces into interactive learning platforms, giving schools an alternative to expensive smart-board infrastructure.

In Sport & Tech, 21-year-old Manoj Kumar Kasinathan, 20-year-old Jena R and 20-year-old Chriswin William D are developing an AI and wearable technology-based solution to distinguish intentional movement from Parkinson’s tremors and support patients in remaining physically active.

Eighteen-year-olds Nishiithaa G and Dhiikshanyaa G are developing an AI-powered wound-checking solution designed to identify early signs of infection while accounting for differences across skin tones. Meanwhile, 19-year-olds R S Adhidhiya, Rahul R and Hemanthth P are developing a smart wearable wrap designed to combine multiple recovery therapies and make rehabilitation more accessible.

Six teams. Seventeen young innovators. And a shared belief that technology can make everyday challenges easier to understand, navigate and address.

Their achievement reflects a larger shift taking place across India’s innovation landscape. More than half of this year’s national Top 40 teams are from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, highlighting how young people beyond the country’s traditional technology hubs are bringing locally observed challenges into a national innovation conversation.

For Tamil Nadu, the presence of six teams among the national Top 40 is a reflection of the breadth of solutions emerging from its next generation. With innovators from both Chennai and Coimbatore, their solutions span education, road safety, healthcare, mobility and rehabilitation, showing how young people are looking beyond technology itself to the needs of the communities they hope to serve.

A vehicle breakdown in the middle of a highway can quickly become more than an inconvenience. For drivers stranded on unfamiliar stretches of road, finding a mechanic, understanding the problem or getting timely assistance can be difficult. For 17-year-old Tandreem Trishan Kalita from Kamrup Metropolitan, Assam, this everyday experience led to a larger question: could technology make getting roadside help faster, safer and more reliable?

Tandreem has made it to the national Top 40 of the fifth edition of Samsung Solve for Tomorrow with RoadFix, an AI-powered roadside assistance solution that diagnoses vehicle faults and connects users with verified mechanics instantly.

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 enables young innovators to identify real-world challenges and develop potential solutions, taking them from early stages towards prototypes.

From Highway Breakdowns to Reliable Roadside Assistance
For Tandreem, the challenge is the uncertainty that follows a vehicle breakdown. When a vehicle stops working on a highway, drivers may struggle to understand the fault, find a trustworthy mechanic or know how quickly help can arrive. These challenges can become even more pressing in terrain-heavy regions like Assam, where immediate roadside assistance may be limited.

RoadFix explores using AI to diagnose vehicle faults and connect stranded drivers with verified mechanics instantly, helping simplify the process of getting roadside assistance when it is needed most.

Tandreem’s journey reflects a wider shift in India’s innovation landscape. More than half of this year’s national Top 40 teams are from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, highlighting how young people across the country are bringing their own experiences to challenges that matter to their communities.

Under the AI Living for India theme, RoadFix explores how emerging technology can be applied to a practical mobility challenge with potential relevance beyond Assam.

Samsung Solve for Tomorrow gives young innovators access to mentorship, technology, design-thinking skills and a platform to take their solutions forward. The Top 40 teams will now participate in a 10-day Innovation Bootcamp, receiving intensive mentoring from startup founders and industry experts at FITT-IIT Delhi. They will also visit Samsung R&D Institute India – Delhi, Noida and 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 their solutions ahead of the Grand Finale.

At the culmination of the programme, 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 readiness.

In an emergency, keeping blood at the right temperature can be critical. For someone at risk of a fall, changes in the way they walk may offer useful clues. And in grassroots sport, a clear record of scoring can make competition more transparent. These are the challenges being explored by four young innovators from Karnataka, who have made it to the national Top 40 of the fifth edition of Samsung Solve for Tomorrow.

Karthik Pratheep Paramadathil, A V Kruthi Krishna, Bhavya Chawat and Roopal Guha Neogi are developing potential solutions that use technology to make difficult-to-capture information more accessible — spanning emergency healthcare, everyday health monitoring and grassroots sports.

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 enables young innovators from across India to identify real-world challenges and develop potential solutions, helping them take their ideas from the early stages towards prototypes.

Three Ideas, Four Young Innovators

For 20-year-old Karthik Pratheep Paramadathil from Dakshina Kannada, the challenge lies in managing blood temperature during emergency transfusions. His solution explores a compact, portable device that could regulate blood temperature at the point of infusion. The concept is being explored for emergency situations such as shock, hypothermia and heat stroke, where maintaining appropriate blood temperature may be important to patient care.

For 20-year-olds A V Kruthi Krishna and Bhavya Chawat from Bengaluru, the idea begins with an everyday object: a shoe. Their team, 404NotFound, is developing StepSense, a smart system designed to capture gait and movement data. The solution explores how this information could help identify potential risks associated with falls, neuropathy and physical strain.

Roopal Guha Neogi from Bengaluru focusses on making grassroots sports more transparent. His team, NyaayKhel, is developing an AI-powered system that uses smartphone cameras to detect scoring events, create match records and generate athlete performance data for sports such as kabaddi, wrestling and kho-kho.

While the three solutions address different problems, they share a common thread: using technology to capture information that can otherwise be difficult to measure — whether it is blood temperature, changes in movement or sporting scores — and make that information more useful.

Their selection comes as the innovation landscape represented by Samsung Solve for Tomorrow continues to expand. More than half of the national Top 40 teams this year are from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, highlighting how young people across India are identifying challenges in their own surroundings and exploring ways to address.

Samsung Solve for Tomorrow gives young innovators access to design-thinking skills, mentorship and hands-on learning as they develop their solutions. The programme supports participants as they move from identifying a problem towards testing and refining potential solutions.

The Top 40 teams will now participate in a 10-day Innovation Bootcamp, receiving intensive mentorship from startup founders and industry experts at FITT-IIT Delhi. As part of the Bootcamp, they will also get an opportunity to visit Samsung R&D Institute India – Delhi, Samsung R&D Institute India – Noida, Samsung R&D Institute India – Bengaluru, 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, 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 readiness.

For Karnataka’s young innovators, making the national Top 40 is an opportunity to take challenges observed in healthcare, everyday life and sport and explore how technology could help address them.

It is a simple sentence, but one that captures what Samsung Innovation Campus (SIC) hopes every student takes away from the programme.

Across classrooms in South India, young engineering students are learning Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things (IoT) and Coding & Programming through Samsung Innovation Campus, Samsung’s flagship CSR initiative. They arrive looking for technical skills and leave with something far more valuable like confidence, curiosity and a renewed belief in their own potential.

For many, the transformation begins quietly.

Dhanya, a Computer Science student specialising in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, remembers walking into her first Coding & Programming class feeling excited but unsure of herself. Like many students, she had completed coursework before, but translating theory into practical problem-solving seemed intimidating.

Over the next few weeks, that changed.

The structured curriculum, industry-grade labs and hands-on assignments made complex concepts feel approachable. More importantly, the encouragement she received from her mentor changed the way she viewed her own abilities.

That confidence extended well beyond the classroom. Today, Dhanya mentors junior students at her college, a role she never imagined taking on before joining Samsung Innovation Campus.

Her story is one of the many student lives who have benefitted from SIC.

For Maddula Varshini from RNS Institute of Technology, engineering had gradually become an exercise in memorising diagrams and preparing for examinations. The excitement that first drew her towards technology had faded.

Samsung Innovation Campus helped bring it back.

Working with sensors, microcontrollers and cloud platforms, she experienced the thrill of building something that worked outside a textbook. The defining moment came when her team’s IoT prototype successfully transmitted live data to the cloud.

Instead of simply providing answers, trainers encouraged students to troubleshoot, ask questions and think through problems independently. Those experiences helped students develop not only technical competence but also the confidence to solve unfamiliar challenges.

That confidence has opened new doors for students like Meghana.

Coming from a modest background, she often felt that opportunities in technology were reserved for students with better access to resources and guidance. Samsung Innovation Campus challenged that belief.

The practical learning environment helped her develop programming skills while giving her the confidence to ask questions without fear of being judged. Since completing the programme, she has made her first open-source contributions and secured her first internship opportunity.

Sanjana, who enrolled in the Artificial Intelligence course, admits AI initially felt overwhelming.

Through project-based learning, she gradually built machine learning models and eventually developed an emotion detection application as part of her capstone project.

The project represented more than technical progress.

It was proof that she could build solutions capable of addressing real-world challenges. Today, she is preparing for advanced certifications in Data Science and participating in AI hackathons, confident that technology is where she belongs.

While every student’s journey is different, the underlying transformation remains remarkably similar.

“Technology education should do more than teach technical concepts, it should empower young people to believe in their own potential. Through Samsung Innovation Campus, we want students to experience the excitement of creating, solving problems and innovating. When we see students mentoring others, securing internships, participating in hackathons or simply becoming more confident learners, we know the programme is making a meaningful difference,” said Amit Mannan, VP, Software R&D (E).

He believes the programme plays an important role in strengthening India’s innovation ecosystem by complementing academic learning with industry-relevant skills.

“Our goal is not only to prepare students for future careers but to nurture a generation of innovators who will help solve real-world challenges using technology.”

As India continues its rapid digital transformation, initiatives like Samsung Innovation Campus are helping bridge the gap between classrooms and careers.

For students like Dhanya, Varshini, Meghana and Sanjana, the programme may have started with coding exercises, AI models or IoT projects. But what they truly gained was something much harder to teach, and perhaps even more valuable. The confidence to imagine a future they once thought was beyond their reach.

From exploring humane ways to address human-wildlife conflict to reducing pollution from construction activities, supporting children with autism, improving access to education for visually impaired students and making sports more inclusive, seven teams from Delhi have made it to the national Top 40 of Samsung Solve for Tomorrow.

Avi Mohan Kumar Shuklaa, Yash Varshney, Aarna Gupta, Vidit Bhayana, Bhumi, Prachi, Aditya Rai, Sparsh Ruhela, Tej Singh Grover and Akshat Sarkar are among a new generation of young Indians looking at challenges around them and asking a simple question: can technology help solve them?

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 enables young innovators from across India to identify real-world challenges and develop potential solutions, helping them take ideas from the early stages towards prototypes.

For Avi Mohan Kumar Shuklaa and Yash Varshney, both 17 and from Central Delhi, the challenge is human-wildlife conflict. Their team, InnoBotix, is exploring a humane early-warning approach that could help reduce risks for both people and wildlife.

In South Delhi, 17-year-old Aarna Gupta is developing AeroShield, a solution exploring how construction-site infrastructure could be used to reduce exposure to airborne pollutants. Her approach looks at how technology could potentially help address pollution-related challenges associated with construction activities.

In Health and Education, 15-year-old Vidit Bhayana from Central Delhi is developing VB SenseGuard, which explores how technology could identify early signs of sensory meltdowns in children with autism and support more timely intervention.

Bhumi and Prachi, both 15 and from South Delhi, are developing VisionAir, an affordable and reusable air-purification solution that explores the use of natural materials to improve air quality.

Aditya Rai and Sparsh Ruhela, both 17 and from East Delhi, are developing Equinox to address accessibility barriers faced by visually impaired students. Their solution explores a voice-first AI companion that could make digital learning resources easier to access.

In Sport & Tech, 16-year-old Tej Singh Grover from South Delhi is developing ThermoGuard, a wearable solution that explores how physiological and environmental conditions could be assessed to provide early warnings of heat-exhaustion risk.

Fourteen-year-old Akshat Sarkar from East Delhi is developing Squirtle, which explores how technology could help athletes who are deaf access sports coaching through Indian Sign Language.

Seven solutions. Ten young innovators. And challenges spanning the environment, health, education, accessibility and sports.

From construction sites to classrooms and sports fields, these solutions reflect how young people are looking closely at challenges around them and exploring how technology could help address them.

Their achievement comes as India’s innovation map itself is expanding. More than half of the national Top 40 teams in this year’s Samsung Solve for Tomorrow are from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, highlighting how young innovators from different corners of the country are bringing fresh perspectives to real-world challenges.

For Delhi, having seven teams and 9 young innovators among the national Top 40 reflects the breadth of challenges that young people are choosing to address. Their solutions span environmental concerns, accessibility, health, education and sports, demonstrating how innovation can begin with observing an everyday problem and exploring a technology-led way forward.

The innovators are currently at the ideation stage and will now receive mentorship and prototyping support as they work to test, refine and develop their solutions and compete for a place in the Top 20.

The Top 40 teams will collectively receive INR 8 lakh, while every team member will receive a Samsung laptop to support prototype development. They will also 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 potential commercialisation.

The growing participation of young innovators from across India points to a larger change in the country’s innovation landscape. Good ideas are not defined by geography. They can emerge wherever young people encounter a problem, question why it exists and decide to explore a different way of addressing it.

For Delhi’s nine young innovators, making the national Top 40 is a moment of recognition — and another sign that solutions rooted in everyday challenges can find a wider platform through Samsung Solve for Tomorrow.

From exploring ways to make specialised healthcare easier to access to enabling visually impaired swimmers to train with greater independence, four young innovators from Andhra Pradesh have made it to the national Top 40 of Samsung Solve for Tomorrow.

Kotipalli Siva Sankar, Shaik Nehaal Khasim, Pasupuleti Ruthvik and Kolla Venkata Siva Surya are among a new generation of young Indians looking at challenges around them and asking a simple question: can technology help solve them?

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 enables young innovators from across India to identify real-world challenges and develop potential solutions, helping them take ideas from the early stages towards prototypes.


For Kotipalli Siva Sankar and Shaik Nehaal Khasim from Guntur, the challenge is access to information around specialised healthcare. Their solution explores how technology could help international patients more easily discover specialised healthcare options in India.

The proposed platform looks at differences in the cost of procedures such as knee replacement, cancer surgery and spine surgery in India and overseas, while exploring how patients could be connected with JCI-accredited hospitals with relevant expertise and capacity. Their approach focuses on making information about potential healthcare providers easier for patients to access when exploring treatment options across countries.

Pasupuleti Ruthvik, 21, from Chittoor, is developing a technology-led solution to help visually impaired swimmers recognise when they are approaching the end of a swimming pool. While coaches may currently use a tapping stick to provide swimmers with a physical cue, his solution explores how technology could provide this information and potentially help swimmers train with greater safety and independence.

In Visakhapatnam, 16-year-old Kolla Venkata Siva Surya is exploring a solution to address veering — the unintended sideways drift that can make it difficult for visually impaired swimmers to maintain a straight path while swimming. His approach looks at how technology could help swimmers better understand their movement and maintain direction, with the aim of supporting a more inclusive sporting experience.

Three solutions. Four young innovators. And challenges spanning healthcare access and inclusive sports.

Their achievement comes as India’s innovation map itself is expanding. More than half of the national Top 40 teams in this year’s Samsung Solve for Tomorrow are from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, highlighting how young innovators from different corners of the country are bringing fresh perspectives to real-world challenges.

For Andhra Pradesh, the presence of young innovators from Guntur, Chittoor and Visakhapatnam among the national Top 40 reflects this growing breadth of India’s innovation landscape. Their solutions span healthcare access and inclusive sports, demonstrating how young people from beyond the country’s major urban centres are identifying challenges around them and exploring technology-led ways to address them.

The innovators are currently at the ideation stage and will now receive mentorship and prototyping support as they work to test, refine and develop their solutions and compete for a place in the Top 20.

The Top 40 teams will collectively receive INR 8 lakh, while every team member will receive a Samsung laptop to support prototype development. They will also 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 potential market-readiness.

For Kotipalli Siva Sankar, Shaik Nehaal Khasim, Pasupuleti Ruthvik and Kolla Venkata Siva Surya, reaching the national Top 40 is an opportunity to take solutions rooted in everyday challenges to the next stage — exploring how early concepts can evolve into prototypes with the potential to make a difference in people’s lives.

At just 15 and 14 years of age, Ananya Agrawal and Adityasai Balakrishnaganandam from Raipur are putting Chhattisgarh on India’s growing innovation map.

The two teenagers have made it to the national Top 40 of the fifth edition of Samsung Solve for Tomorrow with a technology-backed idea exploring a more inclusive approach to recognising emotional cues among autistic individuals experiencing alexithymia.

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 enables young innovators from across India to identify real-world challenges and explore technology-led solutions, giving promising ideas the support and platform to move towards prototypes.

Ananya and Adityasai’s solution explores how technology could better account for differences in the way emotions are expressed and understood by autistic individuals experiencing alexithymia, a condition that can make it difficult for some people to identify and interpret emotions.

The idea emerged from a simple question: why should technology designed to recognise emotions assume that everyone expresses them in the same way?

Rather than treating emotional cues as universal, the young innovators are exploring how technology could be designed to better reflect individual differences.

Their achievement is part of a much bigger story unfolding across the country. More than half of this year’s national Top 40 teams are from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, showing how promising ideas are increasingly emerging from young innovators far beyond India’s traditional technology and startup centres.

For Chhattisgarh, having two teenagers from Raipur among the national Top 40 is a moment of pride — and an example of how curiosity, empathy and problem-solving among young people from different parts of India can translate into ideas with potentially wider impact.

As part of the Top 40, Ananya and Adityasai will now receive mentorship and prototyping support as they work to take their idea from the ideation stage towards a working prototype.

“We wanted to understand why technology that works well for some may not work the same way for everyone. The programme is helping us think more deeply about the people who could benefit from our solution and how to make it practical,” said Ananya Agrawal.

“The process has helped us look at the solution from different perspectives and understand what it would take to make it useful beyond the ideation stage,” said Adityasai Balakrishnaganandam.
Their journey reflects what is increasingly visible across Samsung Solve for Tomorrow: innovation can start anywhere. It can begin with a teenager noticing a problem in Raipur just as easily as it can emerge from one of India’s established innovation hubs.

Samsung Solve for Tomorrow seeks to be a partner in that journey. By bringing mentorship, design thinking, technology and prototyping support to young innovators across the country, the programme is helping give promising ideas a pathway to move forward.

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.

For Ananya and Adityasai, making the national Top 40 is only the beginning. Their journey from Raipur shows how the next generation of Indian innovation is emerging from every corner of the country — and how the right platform can help a young idea travel far beyond the place where it began.

Samsung India today announced the Top 40 semi-finalist teams of Samsung Solve for Tomorrow, its flagship youth innovation programme that gives young people a platform to identify challenges around them and turn their ideas into solutions through mentorship, technology, prototyping and hands-on learning.

Now in its fifth edition in India in 2026, Samsung Solve for Tomorrow is open to young people aged 14 to 22 and is designed to nurture problem-solving and innovation among the country’s next generation.

The Top 40 represent 15 states and 26 cities, with more than half of the teams coming from Tier 2 and Tier 3 India. Young innovators from Varanasi, Coimbatore, Guntur, Amritsar, Sundargarh and Rajkot have made it to the national semi-finals alongside teams from major technology and education hubs.

The shortlist comprises 10 teams each across the four themes of Samsung Solve for Tomorrow 2026 – AI Living for India, Health and Education, Environmental Sustainability, and Sport & Tech.

“What stands out in this year’s Top 40 is how closely young people are looking at the world around them. They are identifying problems in their communities, classrooms, farms, businesses and playing fields, and asking how technology can make a difference. The fact that more than half of these teams come from Tier 2 and Tier 3 India is particularly encouraging because it shows that the next generation of innovation can emerge from anywhere. Our role through Samsung Solve for Tomorrow is to give these young innovators the mentorship, technology and opportunity to turn their ambition into impact. As Samsung completes 30 years in India, we want to continue investing in the ideas and talent that will shape the country’s next 30 years,” said SP Chun, Corporate Vice President, Samsung Southwest Asia.

The semi-finalists are working on ideas ranging from AI tools that could make financial and essential information more accessible to solutions for agricultural residue, assistive technologies for people with disabilities, affordable healthcare and education tools, and technologies designed to make sport more inclusive.

Among the Top 40 is AIRMED from Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, which is exploring how AI could help built about India as a global healthcare destination. AIRMED wants to connect overseas patients with Indian hospitals.

Code Blooded from Sundargarh, Odisha uses specialised AI to identify sporting talent among para-athletes in smaller cities and rural areas.

AcoustiNode Systems from Thrissur, Kerala addresses dam management through better hydrological intelligence, with the aim of reducing poorly informed reservoir releases and improving flood, irrigation and power-management decisions.

QuantHunt from Raebareli, Uttar Pradesh tackles the emerging cybersecurity threats, where encrypted data stolen today could potentially be decrypted as computing capabilities advance.

Other teams are developing technology to help visually-impaired swimmers train more independently, an AI companion aimed at improving access to education for visually impaired students, a solution that can turn existing classroom projectors into interactive learning platforms, and technology designed to convert biomass into clean energy and useful carbon resources.

“The transition from an interesting idea to a viable solution is often the most difficult part of the innovation journey. What is encouraging about this cohort is that 25 of the Top 40 teams have already started building prototypes. The next phase will challenge them to test their assumptions, learn from users, strengthen their technology and think more deeply about how their solutions can work at scale. That process of learning by building is fundamental to creating strong innovators,” said Dr Nikhil Agrawal, Managing Director, Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer (FITT), IIT Delhi.

From Ideas to Prototypes

The Top 40 will now enter an intensive phase of Samsung Solve for Tomorrow designed to help them develop and strengthen their ideas.

An Innovation Bootcamp, scheduled to begin in September, will give participants exposure to Samsung’s innovation ecosystem, including visits to Samsung R&D centres in Bengaluru, Delhi and Noida, as well as its Southwest Asia headquarters.

The teams will subsequently undergo intensive training and mentoring with FITT, IIT Delhi, receiving guidance on prototyping, problem-solving and developing their ideas for real-world application. Alumni from previous editions of Samsung Solve for Tomorrow will also participate in the mentoring journey, allowing participants to learn from young innovators who have previously gone through the programme.

The semi-final stage will culminate in a National Pitch Event, where the teams will present their solutions before a Samsung jury. Twenty finalist teams will advance to the last stage of the competition.

Awards and Support

Top 40 teams will receive a cumulative ₹8 lakh for prototype development, while each team member will receive a Samsung laptop.

The Top 20 teams will receive a cumulative ₹20 lakh for prototype enhancement, along with the latest Samsung Galaxy Z Flip smartphone for each team member.

At the culmination of Samsung Solve for Tomorrow 2026, the Top 4 winning teams will receive a cumulative grant of ₹2 crore from Samsung for incubation at IIT Delhi, helping them further develop and scale their solutions.

The programme will also recognize participants through special awards at the Grand Finale, including the Digital Impact Award of ₹50,000 and 2 Community Choice Awards of ₹1 lakh each.

Five Years of Taking Innovation Across India

Samsung Solve for Tomorrow was launched in India in 2022 to give young people a platform to identify problems that matter to them and develop ideas into solutions through mentorship, technology and hands-on learning.

Several youth-led startups have been incorporated through the programme since 2022. Over the past four years, Samsung has invested in nurturing young innovation through ₹2 crore in incubation grants at IIT Delhi and over ₹3 crore in cash prizes and technology products, providing emerging innovators with the resources and support to turn ideas into solutions.

Now in its fifth edition, the programme has progressively expanded its reach beyond India’s largest cities. Ahead of the Top 100 selection this year, Samsung conducted 184 Design Thinking Workshops across 135 cities, taking innovation and problem-solving directly to young people across the country.

As Samsung celebrates 30 years in India, Solve for Tomorrow reflects the company’s long-term commitment to supporting young people and strengthening India’s innovation ecosystem.

Globally, Samsung Solve for Tomorrow was launched in the United States in 2010 and has since expanded to 68 countries, engaging more than 3 million young people worldwide. The programme is part of Samsung Electronics’ global CSR vision, “Together for Tomorrow! Enabling People.”