The Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, in collaboration with the Central Board for Secondary Education, declared that the Youth Ideathon shall be initiated. This school-level innovation and entrepreneurship competition is envisioned as inculcating creativity and an entrepreneurial spirit in young minds. The contest will be held in five steps, starting online and open for all school students across India in two categories: junior from Class 4 to Class 8 and senior from Class 9 to Class 12. The students shall form teams of a maximum of 3-5 members from the same school, culminating with a grand finale on October 6, 2024.

The theme for this year’s Youth Ideathon is “iStartup a Good Thing for India.” In 2023, last year, more than 1.5 lakh students from over 8,000 schools participated in it. This time, it hopes to generate more than 2 lakh students from 10,000 schools. Now, entrepreneurship is one of the prime focal points of the New Education Policy 2020. The government indeed has taken quite a few steps toward building up of entrepreneurial thinking in all students, said Dr. Biswajit Saha, Director (Skill Education & Training), CBSE, Ministry of Education. He added, “The Youth Ideathon platform allows students to think bravely and showcase their talents.”

Mamta Kumari, the Deputy General Manager, SIDBI, said that through initiatives like the Youth Ideathon 2024, an entrepreneurial spirit would get a fillip within young minds. “Our initiative has created more than 200 internships for school students, wherein they are getting real-life exposure in different areas such as technology, website management, content creation, digital marketing, and student mobilization,” she stated.

According to Shivani Singh-Kapoor, Co-founder of ThinkStartup, young talent should be caught at an early stage and groomed into becoming job creators in the future. She said, “Youth Ideathon aspires to equip the next generation by incubating student ideas with high potential.”

Youth Ideathon 2024 is supported by industry partners such as Esri India, leader of the geospatial information systems of India, Mediatek, and SheAtWork. Speaking on the association with such innovative platforms, Anku Jain, Managing Director, MediaTek India, said, “We believe that we do our bit towards the growth of the country through more startups, job creation, and trailblazing ideas by way of such innovative platforms. Knowledge-sharing will be the biggest ask in times to come; so we see immense potential coming out of Youth Ideathon 2024.”

Ruby Sinha, Founder, SheAtWork, and President, BRICS CCI WE, sounded confident about the development initiative: “We are optimistic that such initiatives will help harness the power of innovation and entrepreneurship for women toward a brighter future. SheAtWork and BRICS CCI WE will be felicitating the winning idea by a girl student/team in Youth Ideathon 2024.”

Participants’ certificates will be provided, and the best teams vie for incubation grants of up to Rs. 100,000. Special recognition will be accorded to high-participation teachers, mentors, and schools. Youth Ideathon is India’s biggest program in promoting ideas at school level startups.