Indian startup competitions worth your time.
25 curated hackathons, pitch days, innovation challenges, and accelerator cohorts for Indian founders and students. Government-backed and corporate-backed only — no clickbait competitions, no fee-extracting "awards". Filter by type, focus area or prize size.
Showing 25 of 25 competitions
Smart India Hackathon
AICTE & Ministry of Education
Government-of-India flagship — the world's largest hackathon. Teams build solutions for problem statements posted by ministries, PSUs and state governments. Strong CV signal + direct ministry pipelines.
Atal New India Challenge
NITI Aayog (Atal Innovation Mission)
NITI Aayog's grant-based innovation challenge. Up to ₹1 Cr non-dilutive funding for startups solving sectoral problems aligned to government priorities. Routed through AIM-supported incubators.
Defence India Startup Challenge
Ministry of Defence (iDEX-DIO)
Defence ministry's flagship for startups to co-develop with the armed forces. Grant up to ₹1.5 Cr + a clear path to procurement orders from defence services. iDEX Prime extends up to ₹10 Cr for advanced tech.
BIRAC SPARSH — Social Innovation Programme for Affordable & Relevant Healthcare
DBT-BIRAC
Funding for affordable healthcare innovations targeting underserved populations. Up to ₹50 L over 18 months. Stricter eligibility than BIG — must demonstrate social impact angle.
NASSCOM Emerge 50
NASSCOM
NASSCOM's annual showcase of 50 most promising emerging tech companies. No cash but huge B2B visibility, investor intros, and access to NASSCOM's 3,000+ member network.
Eureka! IIT Bombay
IIT Bombay E-Cell
India's largest student startup competition. Tracks span Social, Tech, Business — final pitch in front of top VCs. Many alumni have gone on to raise institutional rounds.
Empresario
IIT Kharagpur E-Cell
IIT Kharagpur's flagship B-plan competition, in its third decade. Mentorship and incubation offers from STEP IIT-KGP. Strong fit for hardware and deep-tech teams.
Conquest
CEL, BITS Pilani
BITS Pilani's pan-India accelerator-style startup competition. Cohort gets mentor sessions before the final pitch round — multiple winners have raised actual VC rounds from the judging panel.
Bharat Inclusion Initiative
CIIE.CO, IIM Ahmedabad
IIM-A's accelerator for startups serving low-income segments. Funding up to ₹1 Cr, 6-month structured programme, mentor access. Strong fit for fintech, agritech and healthcare for emerging India.
T-Hub Lab32
T-Hub (Govt of Telangana)
Telangana's flagship startup accelerator. 3-month sprint with corporate partners, mentor pool, demo day. T-Hub portfolio has raised $1.5B+ across 2,000+ startups.
Hult Prize India Regionals
Hult Prize Foundation
World's largest student social-impact prize, $1M (~₹8.3 Cr) for the global winner. India has multiple regional summits each year — winning the regional secures a slot in the global accelerator.
TiE Global Summit Startup Showcase
TiE
TiE's flagship annual summit — global investor and operator network. Showcase slots are competitive but the network access (15,000+ members across 60+ chapters) is the real prize.
Wadhwani Liftoff
Wadhwani Foundation
Wadhwani's pre-acceleration programme. Free, virtual, 12-week curriculum + mentor pool to take you from idea to investable seed pitch. No equity taken.
Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub
Microsoft
Microsoft's open programme: up to $150K Azure credits + OpenAI + GitHub + free dev tools. No equity, no time limit. Tier upgrades unlock more as you grow.
Google for Startups Accelerator India
3-month sprint with Google engineers, ML experts, and PMs as mentors. Equity-free, $100K Google Cloud credits, + access to Google's product and partnership teams.
Razorpay Rize
Razorpay
Razorpay's startup spotlight — winners get up to ₹1 Cr in payment-stack credits, PR push, and investor introductions from the Razorpay portfolio.
NPCI Fintech Innovation Challenge
National Payments Corporation of India
NPCI invites fintechs to build on UPI / IMPS / FASTag rails. Cash prize, pilot integration with NPCI rails, and direct visibility with India's payments backbone.
Tata Imagination Challenge
Tata Group
Tata Group's flagship student innovation challenge across sustainability, mobility, and social impact themes. Cash prizes + internship and incubation pipelines into Tata companies.
Mahindra Spark the Rise
Mahindra Group
Mahindra's long-running grants programme for ideas aligned to its Rise philosophy — mobility, farming, rural transformation. Cash grants + ecosystem partnerships across Mahindra group companies.
Startup Mahakumbh
DPIIT, MoCI & startup associations
DPIIT-led annual mega event — last edition pulled 50,000+ attendees, 1,500+ startup booths, top investors and ministers. Exhibitor selection is competitive but the visibility is unmatched.
SAMRIDH MeitY Accelerator
MeitY (via MeitY Startup Hub)
MeitY's flagship startup accelerator. Matching investment up to ₹40 L plus 6-month accelerator. 14+ partner accelerators run cohorts year-round.
AGNIi — Accelerating Growth of New India's Innovations
NITI Aayog / Office of PSA
NITI Aayog programme to commercialise Indian-origin technology. Connects innovators with PSUs, govt buyers and large industry for tech-transfer or licensing deals. Best fit for deep-tech / IP-heavy ventures.
Inc42 30 Under 30
Inc42 Media
Inc42's annual cohort of 30 young founders / operators. Strong founder-PR moment, recurring media coverage, and alumni network spanning unicorns.
The Economic Times Startup Awards
The Economic Times
The closest thing to "national startup awards" — categories include Startup of the Year, Top Innovator, Best on Campus, Bootstrap Champ, Comeback Kid. Pure recognition, but career-defining.
CII Startupreneur Bharat
Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)
CII's pan-India pitch competition with strong corporate partnerships across manufacturing, industry 4.0 and B2B SaaS. Smaller cash prize but the CII network unlocks enterprise deals.