Seva First Innovation Challenge opens for students across five states and three UTs

The Union Education Ministry has launched the Seva First Innovation Challenge (SFIC) at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, bringing students and young innovators together to develop solutions to problems in their communities.

The challenge is being organised jointly by the Ministry of Education, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and the University Grants Commission (UGC), with IISc Bengaluru serving as the nodal institute.

The initiative covers five states and three Union Territories — Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep and Puducherry.

Three levels of participation

The challenge has three participation levels — Junior, Technical and Open.

Students from Classes 6 to 12 can participate in the Junior category by identifying local problems and developing simple working solutions or ideas related to services and governance.

The Technical category is open to students from Industrial Training Institutes and polytechnics, with projects focused on areas such as engineering, fabrication, electronics and process solutions.

The Open category is for undergraduate and postgraduate students and research scholars. Participants at this level are expected to demonstrate prototypes or pilot projects with a potential pathway towards deployment.

Five themes for innovation

The challenge will focus on five broad themes:

-Clean and Sustainable Bharat
-Prosperous Farmers, Prosperous Bharat
-Healthy and Inclusive Bharat
-Educated and Skilled Bharat
-Secure Bharat

The themes are intended to guide participants towards solutions addressing community and national-level challenges.

Participants will have access to academic and industry mentorship, laboratories, fabrication facilities and testing support.

The programme also provides for incubation, seed and pilot funding, field-testing opportunities and guidance on intellectual property protection.

The Ministry of Education said promising solutions could be connected with central and state government ministries, urban and rural local bodies, public sector undertakings and industry for possible adoption.

Registration and national finale

Registration for the challenge is open from Sep 25 to Oct 24.

The initiative will culminate in a National Finale in New Delhi from Dec 10 to 17.

The Education Ministry said the challenge is intended to encourage young people to move from identifying problems to developing and testing solutions that can potentially be taken towards implementation.