Students from Assam, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat were among the national winners of the Viksit Bharat Buildathon 2025, with projects ranging from a spider-shaped bomb-diffusing robot to affordable smart glasses and an urban air-purification system.
The 10 winning teams were felicitated by Union Minister of State for Education Jayant Chaudhary in New Delhi on October 28. The competition also received Guinness World Records certification as the “Largest Innovation Solution Competition”, with 2,87,967 submissions across its Idea and Prototype tracks.
Organised by the Department of School Education and Literacy under the Union Ministry of Education, in collaboration with NITI Aayog’s Atal Innovation Mission and the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), the initiative was launched in September 2025 to encourage school students to identify real-world problems and develop solutions.
The 10 national winners received a combined ₹17.5 lakh. Five teams in the Prototype Track received ₹2.5 lakh each for functional models, while five Idea Track winners received ₹1 lakh each to support the development of their concepts. The overall prize pool, covering district, state and national awards, exceeded ₹1 crore.
Robot, smart glasses among winning projects
The team from PM SHRI Kendriya Vidyalaya in Tinsukia, Assam, won for Vadiffuse, a spider-shaped robot designed to diffuse bombs.
Students from Step by Step School in Rohillapur, Gautam Budh Nagar, Uttar Pradesh, were recognised for EchoLens, affordable bone-conduction smart glasses. The project from PM SHRI Kendriya Vidyalaya No. 1 in Surat, Gujarat, was the Urban Breathing Pole, an air-purification concept designed for urban environments.
Other national winners included students from Modern Public School in Shalimar Bagh, Delhi, for a renewable energy project, and Green Valley Educational Institute in Srinagar for Guardian Bridge.
A team from De Nobili School in Dhanbad, Jharkhand, was recognised for Dhanbad: The Burning Treasure and the Silent Methane Gas, a project exploring methane gas in the coal-mining region.
The remaining winners were EcoSync, from PM SHRI Kendriya Vidyalaya in Adoor, Kerala; WINDMINER, an omnidirectional windmill developed by students of Carmel Convent Senior Secondary School in Neemuch, Madhya Pradesh; a tasar cocoon counting, quality-checking and segregation machine from DAV Public School, Unit-VIII, Odisha; and an Instant Thermo Flask developed by students of Pathippaga Chemmal K Ganapathy Government Higher Secondary School in Chennai, Tamil Nadu.
Three-stage evaluation across the country
The Buildathon received submissions under two categories. The Idea Track recognised concepts proposed to address practical problems, while the Prototype Track assessed functional working models.
A three-tier evaluation process at district, state and national levels was conducted by multidisciplinary expert panels. The process resulted in the selection of 10 national awardees, 100 state awardees and 1,000 district awardees.
The competition was organised around four themes: Atmanirbhar Bharat, Swadeshi, Vocal for Local and Samriddh Bharat. According to the Ministry of Education, it was intended to encourage students to develop problem-solving skills, scientific curiosity and entrepreneurial thinking.
Addressing the award ceremony, Chaudhary said students had been encouraged to identify problems and develop solutions independently, without being given predefined problems or answers. He also acknowledged the role of teachers in mentoring students throughout the process.