Samsung India on Tuesday announced the national shortlist for the top 20 teams for its flagship CSR programme Solve for Tomorrow 2024. The teams, which are set to advance to the subsequent national round, represent great geographical diversity comprising individuals from 12 states and 2 Union Territories across India. A few of the participants hail from some of the remotest locations, such as Imphal in Manipur, East Khasi Hills in Meghalaya and Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh.
In the 3rd edition of the programme, students submitted their ideas under two overarching themes — ‘Community and Inclusion’ and ‘Environment and Sustainability.’ About 20% of the ideas in the school track focus on issues relating to education and access to resources for underprivileged communities, challenges around experiential learning and digital literacy. About 25% of the ideas in the youth track revolve around the issues of water conservation, arsenic pollution, water wastage, and ecological imbalance around river basins. In addition, nearly 40% of the ideas focus on curbing air pollution caused by traffic, lack of waste management methods, increase of single-use plastics, and wildfires.
“Samsung’s flagship CSR programme, Solve for Tomorrow, has focused this year on empowering both school and college students to address real-world challenges using technology. This year we focused on encouraging participation from the remotest corners of the country, and we are excited about the representation coming from a diverse geography. We wish the best to the teams moving ahead for the innovation walks at our offices and R&D centres and finally for the national pitch event at IIT Delhi,” said SP Chun, Corporate Vice President, Samsung Southwest Asia. “We are keen to see how their ideas shape up and contribute to addressing macro-level societal issues.”
“We are proud to continue our partnership with Samsung Solve for Tomorrow. This year’s programme structure focused on getting regional talent, which is reflected in the shortlisted teams’ ideas. Some of the ideas are truly inspiring and promising. We are excited to witness the journey of the local talent that will boost the start-up ecosystem in the country,” said Prof Preeti Ranjan Panda, MD, FITT, IIT-Delhi.
These 20 teams get a unique opportunity to attend an innovation walk at Samsung India offices, its R&D centres and design centre. Once they complete their innovation walk, these 20 teams participate at a national pitch event where they will compete within their respective tracks and pitch to the national jury comprising of Samsung experts & leaders.
Here’s what the semi-finalists get:
School Track: 10 semi-finalist teams will get Rs 20,000 grants for prototype development and Samsung Galaxy Tabs. 5 finalist teams will get Rs 1 lakh grants each for prototype enhancement and Samsung Galaxy Watches.
Youth Track: 10 semi-finalist teams will get Rs 20,000 grants for prototype development and Samsung Galaxy Laptops. 5 finalist teams will get Rs 1 lakh grants each for prototype enhancement and Samsung Z Flip Smartphones.
And here’s what the winners get:
School Track: The winning team will be declared the “Community Champion” of Solve for Tomorrow 2024 and will receive a seed grant of Rs 25 lakh for prototype advancement. The schools of the winning teams will also receive Samsung products to boost educational offerings, encouraging a problem-solving mindset.
Youth Track: The winning team will be declared the “Environment Champion” of Solve for Tomorrow 2024 and will receive a grant of Rs 50 lakh for incubation at IIT-Delhi. The colleges of the winning teams also receive Samsung products to boost their educational offerings, encouraging social entrepreneurship.
First launched in the US in 2010, Solve for Tomorrow is currently operational in 63 countries globally and has seen over 2.3 million young people participate worldwide.
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