Over 3 lakh schools participate simultaneously in Viksit Bharat Buildathon

New Delhi, Oct 13 (PTI) Over 3 lakh schools from across the country participated simultaneously in the Viksit Bharat Buildathon 2025, India's largest synchronized innovation hackathon for school students on Monday, according to officials.

Union Education minister Dharmendra Pradhan inaugurated the buildathon -- a nationwide initiative to engage students of classes 6-12 to develop innovative ideas that address real-life challenges.

Set up to be the largest-ever school hackathon, it went live with events across schools nationwide on Monday.

As part of the initiative, more than one crore students from 2.5 lakh schools across the country are being mobilized to ideate, design and develop prototypes under four pre-decided themes.

"The buildathon is not only a competition but a mission, a movement to encourage innovation. I am confident that the innovative ideas germinated from here will pave the way for creating new global models and finding solutions to pressing domestic and global challenges," Pradhan said.

Pradhan also visited Delhi Public School, Mathura Road and PM SHRI Kendriya Vidyalaya No 2 in Delhi Cantonment, to interact with students and teachers. He observed a range of innovative student projects and gained insights into their learning processes.

Commending their creativity and enthusiasm, Pradhan encouraged the students to remain inquisitive and applauded their exceptional creativity which will contribute actively towards a goal of Atmanirbhar Bharat.

Events related to the Buildathon were held on Monday and the winners will be announced in December. It was launched on September 23 It is being organised by the Ministry of Education in collaboration with the Atal Innovation Mission.

The Buildathon calls upon students studying in classes 6-12 to join teams, think creatively, and develop ideas and prototypes that address real-life challenges.

The students will work around four themes of national importance: Aatmanirbhar Bharat – building self-reliant systems and solutions; Swadeshi – fostering indigenous ideas and innovation; Vocal for Local – promoting local products, crafts, and resources; and Samriddhi – creating pathways to prosperity and sustainable growth, according to the ministry.

The inaugural session was followed by the 120-minute live innovation challenge. Over 1 crore students attended the two-hour long live tinkering session, in which students from class 6 to 12 worked in teams of 3–5 to ideate and build prototypes around the four themes.

A special highlight of the event was the School Spotlights, where over 150 schools from remote regions, aspirational districts, hilly states, and frontier areas were connected directly to share their progress and their experiences. PTI GJS NB