A national pitch competition for one specific, buildable fix to a real problem in India's education system. No working prototype required. One complete design — one room — one chance to make it real.
September–October 2026 · Ages 18–35 · Hybrid — Ajmer or Online
India has eleven million unemployed graduates. An exam system that has failed in public three years running. Sixty years of building only one door. The problems are documented. What's missing is people willing to design the next door.
Pitchverse is a national pitch competition run by AINA — Project Bhaskar's research and awareness initiative. The brief is simple: design one specific, buildable fix to one real problem in India's education system. Digital or physical. Then defend it, live, in front of judges.
No working build is required. What's required is a design complete enough that if the idea wins, it can start building with Project Bhaskar right away. The strongest idea doesn't just win the room — it gets looked at seriously for real backing, a residency, and a seed fund to build it for real.
Open to individuals aged 18–35 as of 10 September 2026. Open to Indian residents and Indian citizens living abroad. Teams of 1–4 members. One submission per team.
A pitch deck (6–9 slides), a 1-page evidence note with cited sources, and a completed nine-part design package — all submitted together through one form.
Any EdTech or education-related product, digital or physical. It doesn't need to be built yet — just designed clearly enough to describe exactly what it is and how someone would use it.
Register and submit whenever your design is ready — whether that's in a week or closer to the cutoff. Bring a one-line problem, one-line product, and your team. Then build the nine-part design package at your own pace.
The top 8–10 pitches are announced on 25 October, scored against the published rubric by the AINA core team. Shortlisted teams get a week to refine their pitch and design before the Finale.
Hybrid — in-person in Ajmer or live online, your choice, no scoring difference. Up to 30 minutes per team to pitch, walk through the design, and take questions. Results and the residency decision announced the same day.
Every submission follows the same nine-part structure — so a judge can quickly tell whether an idea is a real, specific product or just sounds good in the abstract.
One paragraph. Who is affected, and how do you know it's real — a statistic, a survey, a personal observation.
What it is, plainly: an app, a website, a physical kit, a printed toolkit, a WhatsApp bot. A description of the actual thing, not a mission statement.
Walk through it step by step from the user's point of view — what they see first, what they do, what they get.
For digital: specific screens or features a first version needs. For physical: materials, components, and rough cost per unit.
Name a specific real group — not "students in India." For example: "Class 6 students at three government schools in Ajmer."
A rough, honest estimate in money and time. A number is required — not a shrug.
At least one sketch, wireframe, or diagram. Hand-drawn is completely fine. Proof you have actually pictured the thing.
Every claim cited with a named source. At least one citation must be to AINA's own published research.
Name the single biggest bottleneck to scale and what it would actually take to clear it. "It would just spread naturally" is not an answer.
Every claim, statistic, or data point must be cited with a named, checkable source. At least one citation must be to AINA's own published research — the interactive timeline, the NEET Pressure Cooker analysis, the Talent Flow report, or the Adapt for AI white paper. Fabricated citations are grounds for disqualification at any stage.
3-month on-site build residency with the Bhaskar product team — the same team that shipped Be A Reader and Adapt for AI. Workspace in Ajmer. Up to ₹10 lakh seed fund released against an approved budget. EIR-style founder mentorship. A go/no-go decision in writing at the end.
CHHAON digital membership, free — and recognition as one of the five strongest ideas to come out of Edition 1.
Certificate and one dedicated mentorship hour with the AINA core team, for the submission that scores highest on buildability.
Most audience votes at the Finale. Feature on AINA's social pages and channels.
| Criterion | Weight |
|---|---|
| Problem understanding and evidence behind it | 15 pts |
| How specific and buildable the product is | 15 pts |
| Team's likelihood and capability of executing | 15 pts |
| Sustainability and scalability beyond v1 | 15 pts |
| Completeness of the design package (all nine parts) | 15 pts |
| Originality of the idea | 10 pts |
| Cost and rollout realism | 10 pts |
| Clarity of the pitch | 5 pts |
| Total | 100 pts |
Registration is rolling from 10 September 2026. Submissions close 21 October 2026, 11:59 PM IST.
Teams of 1–4. Open to Indian residents and citizens abroad, aged 18–35. No entry fee. One design package. One room.
Questions? Contact the AINA team through the registration form.