Samsung’s flagship education programme, Solve for Tomorrow (SFT) 2025, held in partnership with IIT Delhi, has spotlighted a new generation of young innovators leveraging technology to accelerate environmental sustainability. For decades, sustainability was perceived as sacrifice, but participants demonstrated how tech-led solutions can reduce waste and carbon footprints while driving economic growth. Under the theme “Environmental Sustainability via Technology,” thousands of students submitted prototypes targeting resource conservation, waste management, clean water supply, and carbon reduction. The winning team, Prithvi Rakshak, comprising three teenagers Abhishek Dhanda, Prabhkirat Singh and Rachita Chandok developed a modular, AI-enabled vermicomposting system that uses smart sensors to automate organic waste conversion in institutions and communities.
Other finalists presented innovations addressing environmental challenges: Drop of Hope (Uttar Pradesh) extracts water from air using solar condensation; Renewable Desalination (Assam) offers a low-cost, energy-efficient drinking water solution; SmalBlu (Gujarat) reduces carbon output by optimising enterprise cloud infrastructure; and VOXMAPS (Madhya Pradesh) deploys LiDAR drone sensors for pollution mapping.
The winners secured incubation support worth up to ₹1 crore at IIT Delhi, with top teams receiving ₹1 lakh grants, Goodwill and Young Innovator Awards, and Galaxy Z Flip smartphones. There has been a growing interest in sustainability-led technologies among institutions and startups in Kolkata. Waste-to-resource models and cloud carbon optimisation tools showcased at SFT 2025 are expected to attract adoption in the city’s education hubs and expanding IT services sector. Samsung said the programme reflects rising STEM participation from Tier-II and Tier-III cities, supported by alumni mentorship and IIT Delhi’s FITT Labs. Globally, Solve for Tomorrow has engaged 2.9 million youth across 68 countries, expanding India’s role in responsible and empathy-driven technological transformation.