Six young innovators from West Bengal have secured places in the national Top 40 of Samsung Solve for Tomorrow 2026, with their technology-based ideas focusing on wage transparency, accessibility for people with hearing and speech disabilities, and elderly care.
The innovators — Rahul Gupta, Anushka Gupta, Sayak Samanta, Soufir Rahman, Shourjiya Chakraborty and Aishi Mukhopadhyay — are developing three solutions under the programme. While Rahul and Anushka are exploring an AI-based tool to simplify minimum wage information, Sayak and Soufir are developing Sign Bridge AI to translate sign language into speech and text in real time. Shourjiya and Aishi are working on a technology-driven solution to help families and caregivers monitor the wellbeing of elderly people living alone.
More than half of the national Top 40 teams this year are from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, reflecting the growing spread of India’s innovation ecosystem beyond major metropolitan centres.
In Kolkata, the achievement highlights the city’s growing potential as a hub for technology-led innovation and socially relevant startups. With a strong academic base and an expanding startup ecosystem, Kolkata continues to offer young innovators opportunities to transform local challenges into scalable solutions.
The Top 40 teams will undergo a 10-day Innovation Bootcamp with mentoring from startup founders and industry experts at FITT-IIT Delhi before competing for the Top 20. The four winning teams will collectively receive incubation grants worth Rs 2 crore along with incubation support from FITT-IIT Delhi to further develop their solutions for the market.