The Aarohan Social Innovation Awards 2025 is accepting entries from 24th April, 2025 at 03:30PM (IST) until 15th June 2025 at 11:59PM (IST).
The contest is open to all citizens of India, residing in India over the age of 18.
However, the following individuals are not eligible to apply:
Employees and directors of Infosys Limited and Infosys Foundation (“Sponsor”), the Company hosting the Contest Platform (“Administrator”) and each of their respective parent entities, subsidiaries and affiliated companies, owners, officers, directors, partners, agents, representatives, employees and contractors, advertising, promotion agencies, webmasters and web suppliers (collectively “Released Parties”) and their respective dependents, immediate family members (parent, child, sibling and spouse) and individuals residing in their same household.
- Winners from previous editions of the Aarohan Awards cannot apply for three subsequent editions. However, past winners may apply from the fourth edition onwards with an entirely new social innovation.
- Individuals whose entries were shortlisted in previous editions of the Aarohan Awards but did not make it to the final selection may re-enter their innovation in this edition, but only if they can demonstrate and prove that significant enhancements have been made to their innovations.
- Individuals who submitted their innovations in the last edition but were not shortlisted can re-apply for this year’s edition.
Yes, you may as long as your entry is a social innovation that addresses a problem in education, healthcare or environmental sustainability, and is easily accessible and affordable by mass markets in India. Remember to include your company’s vision and website in the supporting document when submitting your entry.
You can make changes to your application till 15th June 2025, 11:59PM IST. After this, amendments will not be possible, and new submissions will no longer be accepted.
Yes, you may. Please refer to question 2 to see who is not eligible to apply
To be considered a qualified entry, an application must satisfy the following criteria:
- The innovation should have a working prototype at a bare minimum. Concepts, ideas and mockups will not be considered.
- The innovation must have a name.
- All entries must be supported by a brief description of what the innovation does.
- All entries must be accompanied by a video explaining the innovation in a clear, concise and engaging manner.
- A supporting document that describes the innovation in detail, with any other information that you believe is essential for the judges to know may be a part of your application
Please refer to the Terms and Conditions of the contest.
Your video is essential for conveying the originality, effectiveness and accessibility of your innovation to the judges. When making and uploading your video please keep the following in mind:
- Your video must be between 90-120 seconds long, a .mp4, .wmv, .flv or .mkv file that does not exceed 120MB.
- Make sure your video doesn’t include any individuals (children included) other than yourself, the applicant(s). Do not use models to demonstrate the innovation and ensure that people in still photos do not appear in the video or in the background of the video.
- Your video may include text in the form of subtitles or supers.
- Your video should not contain any elements that are owned by other people. This includes music, video clips, logos, design elements or sound files created by anyone other than yourself. If you plan to use any of the above, please obtain the necessary permissions to do so. Remember, not everything available online for free is in the public domain. We strongly recommend that applicants do not use any media/visuals/footage that they have not created themselves or that they do not have explicit right to use.
- Your video should not include any of the following
- Names of companies, products or brands
- Existing cartoons or animated characters
- Characters from movies or television shows
- Famous people/celebrities (dead or alive)
- Buildings, landmarks, statues, works of art
- Clips from social media videos or commercials
These restrictions ensure that no person or entity can challenge your entry (including any part of the video) because they are the original owners of any of the elements or a combination of elements which you may have used.
- You may use commercially available tools, equipment, or technology in your video.
Entries are typically disqualified if the eligibility criteria are not met, if innovations are not working prototypes (at a bare minimum), in case there is a category mismatch, or if the document or/and video uploaded do not meet all the requirements.
By submitting an entry, the entrant irrevocably grants the Sponsor the unconditional and perpetual right and permission to reproduce, encode, store, copy, transmit, publish, post, broadcast, display, publicly perform, adapt, exhibit, edit and/or otherwise use or reuse (without limitation as to when or to the number of times used) the entrant's video and all information that is part of the entry, including, but not limited to, the recording contained therein (in each case, as submitted or as edited/modified in any way by the Sponsor in their sole discretion), as well as to use the entrant's name, and/or statements regarding his/her participation in this contest (with or without using the entrant's name) in any and all media without limitation as to time or territory, and without additional compensation or approval from the entrant or any other party. The entrant and each team member waive intellectual property rights, privacy/publicity rights and other legal or moral rights that might preclude the Sponsor’s use of the video, and agrees not to sue or assert any claim against the Sponsor for the use of the Video or Entrant's Likeness or statements.
A qualified panel of judges will evaluate all eligible entries. The highest scoring entries will then undergo an audit. The top 30 to 35 entries that qualify in the audit will then advance to the final round. All finalists will be notified via email.
Aarohan Social Innovation Awards undergoes a detailed process audit.
The top 30 to 35 entries selected after the audit will be invited to present their innovations to the jury. The jury will select their top entries from among these 30 to 35 for consideration for the grand prize.
The Sponsor’s decisions on all matters pertaining to judging, administering and/or interpreting the Terms and Conditions of this contest are final.
The Infosys Foundation will award up to INR 50 lakh per winner, with a total prize purse of INR 2 crore. Winners will also receive mentorship and incubation.
Please be aware that the Team Representative will be responsible for both (1) all taxes, if any, owed on the prize amount and (2) distributing the winnings to other team members in whatever manner has been agreed by those team members. We strongly recommend that team members agree among themselves about the manner of distributing the prize amount prior to submitting an entry. The Sponsor will not intervene in disputes between team members in the unlikely event they should arise, and the Sponsor expressly disclaims any responsibility for ensuring fair distribution of prize amounts among team members. For NGOs, the ‘Representative’ will be responsible for all taxes, if any, owed on the prize amount and for disbursing the prize money among members of the same NGO, if required.
After all the final winners have been decided and verified, the names of the winning entries and the names of the applicants (first name, last name, initials, city and state) will be posted on the official Infosys Foundation website and shared via a press release and on social media.
