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 In order to identify Indias smartest and brightest young minds, the Management Entrepreneurship Professional Skills Council (MEPSC), under the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE), in association with Central Board of Secondary Education(CBSE) and ThinkStartup (TS), which is a new-age education venture that provides modern, relevant and engaging entrepreneurial learning to K12 segment, and Bajaj Allianz Life on Wednesday announced the India@75 (Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav): YOUTH IDEATHON 2022.

The annual festival of ideas had its inaugural edition in 2021 through a collaboration between MEPSC and ThinkStartup. Marking its return in 2022, this multistage festival of innovative entrepreneurial ideas will not only strive to identify, showcase and feature some of India's brightest young entrepreneurial minds but will also work towards inculcating the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship amongst school students.

The four-stage festival of entrepreneurial thinking will feature exciting rewards and recognition opportunities for students, mentor teachers and schools. This year's Youth Ideathon will also feature a bonus 5th round that focuses on incubating high-potential student ideas into real-life business ventures. Through this initiative, ThinkStartup and MEPSC strive to guide youngsters, help them identify societal problems, propose solutions that are capable of addressing those problems and most importantly help in turning those prototypes into real time solutions by providing them financial assistance and relevant industry exposure.

Students of Classes 4th to 12th from all over India as well as CBSE affiliated schools in foreign countries can participate in the Youth Ideathon for free.

Being a team based competition, eligible students can participate only in teams of 3 to 5 members with the minimum size of each participating team being 3 while the maximum size being 5.

Col. Anil Kumar Pokhriyal, CEO, MEPSC, said, "Last year when we started this initiative, we were not aware the tremendous impact that we might have through this initiative. Through this humble effort of ours, we strive to identify ideas that have the potential to change our nation for good."

Dr. Rajiv Kumar, former Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog, said "India has been the cradle of innovation for centuries and as we move into a new era, it's time to build an ecosystem that supports entrepreneurship and innovation. The growth possibility for an initiative like this is limitless owing to the fact that this new era will be led by innovations induced by youngsters."

Dr. Chintan Vaishnav, Mission Director, Atal Innovation Mission, said, "In India, we have over 75000 startups, i.e. almost One startup in every 20000 people whereas the number in developed nations is about One in every 2000. This provides an enormous growth opportunity for the startup ecosystem in India and initiatives such as Youth Ideathon 2022 are extremely important towards ensuring that."

Shivani Singh Kapoor, Founder, ThinkStartup, said "With over 62000 registrations, India @75 Youth Ideathon, provided us with a great launch platform. I firmly believe that this year's Youth Ideathon will receive an even better response as compared to last year's Youth Ideathon and will lay down the foundations of India's technological leap to global leadership."

According to Sanjeeva Shivesh, Co-founder, ThinkStartup, and Programme Director, Youth Ideathon, said, "Building entrepreneurial thinking from a young age has truly become the need of the hour for our nation. With this year's theme for Youth Ideathon being MERA IDEA JO BADAL DE BHARAT, we wish to highlight, foster and guide young entrepreneurial minds who have the potential to embark a wave of change that would lead our nation and its people to a more sustainable future."

In order to provide financial assistance to India's brightest young entrepreneurial minds, the organizers of the Youth Ideathon 2022 has announced a Prototyping Award along with prize money of Rs 10,000 each for the top 25 teams. Out of these top 25 teams, the shortlisted top 10 teams will be offered an incubation grant of Rs 100,000 each. Sheatwork, a one-stop knowledge hub for women entrepreneurs, has also announced a prize money of Rs 25,000 for the best Student Innovator (Female).

Recognised by the CBSE, this year's Youth Ideathon is being backed by some of the most renowned entities across the corporate sector and academia such as Bajaj Allianz, Cambridge University, FITT, Sheatwork, TIDE (Business Incubator, IIT Roorkee), TIFAC, Unlock.fit, NPSC India etc.