Students of RPVV, Surajmal Vihar and Dr. BR Ambedkar School of Specialised Excellence, Sector 11, Rohini outshone approximately 1.5 lakh students from various schools from across the globe at ‘Youth Ideathon 2023’, the Delhi government said here on Friday said.

Their triumph secured the Delhi students an incubation grant of Rs 1 lakh for their innovative products at the event.

The first team, from RPVV, is ‘TranQR’ which is working on a QR-based smart attendance system in schools to replace manual registers. Another team is ‘Ahilya’ from Dr. BR Ambedkar School of Specialised Excellence which created an app prototype for children with special needs (visually impaired, hearing impaired and autistic children) which can help them explore surroundings and learn through various activities.

The teams’ TranQR and Ahilya have been chosen from the top 10 student startups from thousands of schools in India and abroad.

Started in 2021, the Youth Ideathon is one of India’s most sought-after innovation and entrepreneurship competitions for school students. The contest engages youth to energise them and connect them with their passions to discover societal problems and propose solutions to make lives better. It is organised by the Management Entrepreneurship Professional Skills Council (MEPSC) under the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE), Govt. of India, and ThinkStartup.

Lauding the achievement of students from the aforementioned Delhi government schools, Delhi Education Minister Atishi said, “The dream of CM Arvind Kejriwal and curator of Delhi Education Revolution Manish Sisodia seems to be turning into reality now. This achievement of team TranQR is an example of it.”

The minister said that the Delhi government launched ‘Business Blasters’ programme to prepare more job creators or entrepreneurs for the future and now students of a Delhi government school have left behind students of some of the most prominent private schools globally in this challenge.

Speaking about team Ahilya, Atishi further said, “Team Ahilya comes from Delhi government’s most sought-after school- Dr BR Ambedkar School of Specialized Excellence. Their achievement shows that if we open the doors of specialised education for our children from a very young age, they can do wonders. Until 2015, no one would have thought that Delhi government school students would participate in such a high-level competition; today they are not only participating but also making it to the list of the top 10. This is such a proud moment for all our schools.”

She said, “Our ‘Young Entrepreneurs’ have proven their capabilities and shown that there is no dearth of talent in Delhi government schools. With such outstanding ideas, our students will not only deal with social challenges efficiently but also make India’s economy the number one.”

TranQR, a student startup, is a product of the Business Blaster initiative of the Delhi government. The venture focuses on innovation in identity and lost-and-found solutions. It has developed a cost-efficient, durable, and effective student identification system using Virtual Identity Patches (VIP).  In TranQR’s product QR code is applied like a fast tag on the school uniform, which, when scanned by a scanner, eliminates the need for a manual attendance register, saving teachers’ time.

The venture was started with the seed money of Rs 16,000 and is already working in four Delhi government schools. They have generated revenue of Rs 60,000 in just four months with their first product VIP.

Sharing his experience of Ideathon, Tushar Tuli, co-founder of TranQR said, “The Business Blasters programme has cultivated the ability to think outside the box and take risks, and it is due to this that our business idea is now included among the top ideas nationwide. We dreamt and our dreams were supported by the Delhi government with seed money. We aim to take our first product VIP to schools globally so that the attendance system can be made more efficient.”