The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) hosts the Youth Ideathon 2023 at its headquarters. Youth Ideathon is India’s largest festival of startup ideas for school students, established in 2021 by the Management Entrepreneurship Professional Skills Council (MEPSC) and ThinkStartup.
The third edition of Youth Ideathon was launched on October 6, 2023, at CBSE Headquarters by Dr Biswajit Saha, Director (Skill Development), Dr. Joseph Emmanuel, Director (Academics), and Dr Praggya M Singh, Director (Academics Assessment), in the presence of the top five winners of Youth Ideathon 2022 Incubation and Fellowship grants, who showcased and presented the details and progress of their innovative startups during the last year of incubation by ThinkStartup.
Speaking to the educators, Dr. Biswajit Saha, Director (Skill Development), CBSE, stated, “Youth Ideathon aims to motivate and develop change-makers who can propel India to global leadership.
This multistage festival of innovation aims not only to uncover, promote, and spotlight some of India’s best young entrepreneurial minds, but also to instill the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship in schools.
Youth Ideathon prepare young pupils to negotiate the challenges of a rapidly changing world by concentrating on societies’ ever-changing needs.”
Dr. Joseph Emmanuel, Director (Academics) CBSE, stated, since time immemorial, India has provided the globe with simple new answers. To be a global leader, any civilization must nurture an environment of innovation and entrepreneurship.
We want this promoted in schools. The Youth Ideathon is an initiative in that direction. It is a thorough 6-week program in which MEPSC and ThinkStartup provide Faculty Development Workshops on teaching innovation and entrepreneurship in the classroom. Schools must take full use of this opportunity.
At the opening occasion, Dr. Praggya M Singh, Director (Academics Assessment) CBSE, stated, “Youth Ideathon is an idea marathon. It educates students, instructors, and schools about the world of innovation and startups. “The five-stage festival is an excellent learning opportunity for everyone.”
Shivani Singh Kapoor, Founder of ThinkStartup, stated that “instilling entrepreneurial thinking in young minds is an urgent need.” This can only occur in schools. Youth Ideathon is an initiative in that aim.
We were inspired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s clarion call to develop Atma Nirbhar Bharat. This can only happen if we instill in children the spirit of inquiry and creativity while they are in school.
Through the Youth Ideathon, we incentivize the efforts of school students and instructors with a Prototyping Award of Rs15,000 each for the top 25 teams and an incubation grant of Rs100,000 each for the top ten teams.”
On this occasion, Sanjeeva Shivesh, Programme Director, Youth Ideathon, stated, “Youth Ideathon is a comprehensive program designed to build and energize a startup ecosystem for high school students.
The 2022 edition attracted 95,000 students from more than 7000 schools. We also taught 12000 schoolteachers to teach innovation, design, and entrepreneurship in the classroom.
This year, we’re seeing more interest from schools and kids. The full program is free for everyone. This was made possible by the generous support of our sponsors, Bajaj Allianz Life, CONCOR Limited, Sheatwork, TIDES Business Incubator of IIT Roorkee, Macmillan, Unlock.fit, and several other partners.”
Youth Ideathon 2023 is a five-stage festival of entrepreneurial thought with exciting incentives and recognition opportunities for students, mentor teachers, and schools, organized by Bajaj Allianz Life and CONCOR to demonstrate their dedication to the cause of new age education.
The apex of Youth Ideathon includes a bonus sixth stage in which the top ten student teams are fostered into real-world commercial operations.
ThinkStartup and MEPSC hope that this initiative will help young people identify societal problems, propose solutions to those problems, and, most importantly, turn those prototypes into real-world solutions by providing financial assistance and relevant industry exposure.
