Young innovators from smaller Indian cities are increasingly taking technology ideas from local problems to national platforms. Samsung Solve for Tomorrow 2026 is highlighting this shift, with 36 young participants reaching the national stage of the fifth edition of the programme.
Samsung India has announced the Top 20 finalists after a selection process that brought together young people working on technology-based solutions. More than half of the Top 20 participants come from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, with the finalists representing 18 cities across 12 states.
The ideas cover a wide range of everyday challenges, including accessibility, healthcare, agriculture, pollution, education and sports. The participants are using technologies such as artificial intelligence, computer vision, sensors, voice systems and low-cost wearable devices to develop their solutions.
Samsung Global Initiative
Programme is part of the global Samsung Solve for Tomorrow initiative, which encourages young people to use science, technology, engineering and mathematics to address problems around them. Instead of starting only with a technology idea, participants are encouraged to identify a problem and then develop a possible solution.
This year, the projects are divided across four themes: AI Living for India, Environmental Sustainability, Health and Education, and Sport & Tech. The range of ideas shows how young participants are applying emerging technology to problems that affect different sections of society.
Some projects focus on people who have limited access to technology. These include an offline AI application designed to explain complex documents for people with low literacy, a real-time Indian Sign Language translation system and a voice-based learning tool for visually impaired students.
Technology Solves Local Problems
Other teams are working on autism-related sensory challenges and assistive technology for visually impaired swimmers. The environmental projects include ideas around converting agricultural waste into clean energy and carbon materials, reducing textile waste and addressing pollution at construction sites.
The geographical spread is another notable feature of the programme. Participants come from places including Sundargarh, Chittoor, Visakhapatnam, Raebareli, Varanasi, Amritsar, SAS Nagar, Sonipat and Raipur, along with larger technology centres such as Bengaluru, Chennai, New Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Mumbai.
The spread suggests that technology-led innovation is not limited to traditional startup centres. Young people in smaller cities are also working on problems specific to their communities and using technology to develop solutions.
Finalists Build Prototypes
The Top 20 teams were selected after a semi-final stage involving 40 teams. The teams took part in a hands-on prototyping programme conducted with FITT-IIT Delhi, where mentors helped them improve their ideas and understand the needs of the people they were designing for.
The programme also exposed participants to the practical side of innovation. During the Innovation Bootcamp, teams worked on their prototypes and received guidance on how to develop their concepts into more usable solutions.
As part of this process, participants visited Samsung Design Delhi, Samsung R&D centres in Noida, Delhi and Bengaluru, as well as the company headquarters in Gurugram. These visits gave the young innovators exposure to product design, research and development and technology work.
The process concluded with a National Pitch Event, where the 20 finalists presented their ideas before a panel of experts. Mentors from Samsung R&D and Samsung South West Asia evaluated the teams, with five finalists selected from each of the four programme themes.
SP Chun, Corporate Vice President, Samsung South West Asia, said the focus was not only on the technology being developed but also on the problems selected by the participants. He said young innovators were addressing issues in areas such as accessibility, healthcare, agriculture, pollution and sports.
Innovation Beyond Metros
The programme also reflects a wider change in the Indian innovation ecosystem, where access to technology, mentorship and digital tools is allowing young people from different regions to participate in problem-solving initiatives.
For Samsung, Solve for Tomorrow combines technology exposure with education and mentorship. For the participants, the programme provides a route to test ideas, develop prototypes and present them before a national audience.
Year 2026 edition therefore puts attention not only on the final technology products but also on where these ideas are coming from. With more than half of the Top 20 finalists from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, the programme points to a wider base of young Indian innovators working on practical problems beyond the country traditional technology hubs.
