New Delhi, January 22, 2026: Maker Bhavan Foundation is delighted to announce the Vishwakarma Awards 2025, scheduled to be held on January 24, 2026, at IIT Indore.
Conceived as a rigorous, thematic innovation challenge, the Vishwakarma Awards empower student teams to transform visionary ideas into deployable prototypes that address real-world problems.
This year, the awards have received 3,600 applications from undergraduate and postgraduate STEM students from India and SAARC countries, including Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Sri Lanka, offering them a dynamic platform to demonstrate ingenuity, creativity, and problem-solving skills.
“A key USP of the awards is that all prototypes must be hardware solutions, ensuring tangible, industry-ready innovations that can be deployed in real-world contexts. The themes in focus for 2026 are HealTech, Smart Mobility, and Artificial Intelligence (AI), with a strong emphasis on embedding AI into hardware systems. This will encourage participants to come up with out-of-the-box solutions in healthcare, sustainable transport, and intelligent systems,” said the CEO of MBF, Mr Gautam Khanna.
In addition to the open category, students will also engage with industry problem statements curated by leading partners. This collaboration ensures that solutions are not only innovative but also industry-relevant and scalable.
From an initial pool of 1,000 teams, 12 finalists have emerged following a rigorous nine-month process of prototyping, evaluation, and mentoring. Finalists receive dedicated prototyping support to transition concepts into working systems. The program includes intensive technical and entrepreneurship training at IIT Indore, focusing on prototype refinement, pitch strengthening, and presentation skills.
The Vishwakarma Awards embody Maker Bhavan Foundation’s mission to foster India’s next generation of engineers and entrepreneurs, while opening doors to opportunities for students across India and SAARC nations.
