Delhi Higher Education Minister Ashish Sood on Saturday launched the ‘Seva-First Innovation Challenge 2026’ at Delhi Technological University (DTU), offering a Rs 2 crore prize pool, mentorship and government support to young innovators developing technology based solutions to real world problems.
DTU will serve as the anchor university for the initiative, which will cover Haryana, Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Chandigarh and Ladakh. Students from universities, industries, startups, schools, ITIs and polytechnics in these states and Union Territories will participate.
Sood said the 100-day challenge would encourage participants to identify local and national problems, develop innovative ideas and prototypes, validate them and work towards implementing practical solutions. The focus areas include agriculture, waste management, education and rural challenges.
“This is not merely an initiative to create a few startups. It is an effort to build a strong innovation and startup ecosystem in Delhi,” Sood said, adding that promising ideas would receive mentorship and, wherever required, funding support through the startup ecosystem and government policies.
The minister said the Delhi Startup Policy aims to create 10,000 startups and four lakh jobs in the city.
The programme will have a jury comprising startup leaders and founders, including Viraj Bahl of Veeba, Akash Gupta of Zypp, Swati Bhargava of CashKaro and Puneet Gupta of AstroTalk.
The event also saw the announcement of DTU’s Rural Technology and Community Engagement Programme, which will be offered from the next academic session. Under the programme, engineering students will visit villages to identify local problems and develop practical technological solutions.