SRM Institute wins Azim Premji University’s social enterprise challenge

October 12, 2026 /Posted byPrajwal EW / 0

Students from SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Chennai, won first prize at the 10th National Social Enterprise Idea Challenge organised by Azim Premji University in Bengaluru on October 10.

Launched in 2016, the annual challenge promotes social entrepreneurship by encouraging students to develop business ideas addressing social issues. This year, 10 teams were shortlisted from more than 270 entries submitted by universities and colleges across India.

The winning team presented URAPPU, a service that helps construction workers access government welfare benefits through registration, documentation, eligibility checks, renewals and claims. Builders pay for the service, allowing workers to access it free of charge.

Azim Premji University, Bengaluru, secured second prize for SuoMoto, a digital platform supporting visually impaired people and persons with benchmark disabilities. Its services include audio-based competitive examination preparation, job connections and tools to support independent living.

The third prize went to a team representing Azim Premji University and Lovely Professional University for GreenPath, a digital platform designed to improve rural waste management. It uses QR codes to track waste collection, monitors segregation and payments, and provides panchayats with real-time data.

Samudra Sangkha Gogoi, mentor for the Social Enterprise Cell at Azim Premji University, said the challenge helps identify social issues that concern young people and encourages them to develop sustainable enterprises to address them.

Also Read: Ashoka University wins two FICCI Higher Education Excellence Awards

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“Most schools never consciously chose their basic unit. They inherited one from the past: the class. With the class as the focus, the things that happen between people get squeezed out: the apprentice learning alongside someone skilled, the child taught where they are rather than where the class is, and the daily practice of getting along with people they did not choose. The most promising new schools are organising themselves around the individual child rather than the class. A better approach is to group children by readiness in each subject and change those groups as they progress. Communication, collaboration and handling disagreement need daily practice. In a school built around individual progress, teachers get time back to observe, diagnose, mentor and step in where they are most needed. Most teachers entered the profession to make a difference to children. Many spend their careers managing classes instead. The best new schools offer them a system that finally lets them do the work they signed up for.”

- Rahul Raghavan, Economic Times, (27/10)

“Government medical college seats are 100% filled, vacancies are confined entirely to the private sector. Colleges and state fee-fixation committees must re-examine these fee structures, because lowering NEET qualifying cut-offs will not resolve an affordability crisis when millions of candidates already qualify. The vacancies are an indicator that qualifying for medical admission does not necessarily mean students could afford a seat. Institutions charge full fees to early applicants and offer discounts to late entrants to fill the vacant seats. It reflects a purely commercial approach that compromises merit while still failing to fill classrooms. High management-quota fees are putting seats beyond the reach of many candidates. Some 24 lakh students write the entrance test for 1.4 lakh seats. While the cream gets government seats, the rest of the students cannot afford a management-quota seat.”

- Divyansh Kumar, The Times of India, (2/11)

SRM Institute wins Azim Premji University’s social enterprise challenge

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