– At just 14 and 15, two young innovators from Raipur are developing a technology-led solution aimed at better understanding emotional cues among autistic individuals experiencing alexithymia
– More than half of the national Top 40 teams are from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, signalling how young innovators from across India are developing solutions to real-world challenges
– Four winning teams will collectively receive INR 2 crore in grants, along with incubation support from FITT-IIT Delhi
At just 15 and 14 years of age, Ananya Agrawal and Adityasai Balakrishnaganandam from Raipur are putting Chhattisgarh on India’s growing innovation map.
The two teenagers have made it to the national Top 40 of the fifth edition of Samsung Solve for Tomorrow with a technology-backed idea exploring a more inclusive approach to recognising emotional cues among autistic individuals experiencing alexithymia.
Samsung Solve for Tomorrow is Samsung’s flagship CSR innovation programme for young people aged 14 to 22. Through design thinking, mentorship and hands-on learning, the programme enables young innovators from across India to identify real-world challenges and explore technology-led solutions, giving promising ideas the support and platform to move towards prototypes.
An Idea Rooted in Empathy
Ananya and Adityasai’s solution explores how technology could better account for differences in the way emotions are expressed and understood by autistic individuals experiencing alexithymia, a condition that can make it difficult for some people to identify and interpret emotions.
The idea emerged from a simple question: why should technology designed to recognise emotions assume that everyone expresses them in the same way?
Rather than treating emotional cues as universal, the young innovators are exploring how technology could be designed to better reflect individual differences.
Their achievement is part of a much bigger story unfolding across the country. More than half of this year’s national Top 40 teams are from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, showing how promising ideas are increasingly emerging from young innovators far beyond India’s traditional technology and startup centres.
For Chhattisgarh, having two teenagers from Raipur among the national Top 40 is a moment of pride — and an example of how curiosity, empathy and problem-solving among young people from different parts of India can translate into ideas with potentially wider impact.
As part of the Top 40, Ananya and Adityasai will now receive mentorship and prototyping support as they work to take their idea from the ideation stage towards a working prototype.
“We wanted to understand why technology that works well for some may not work the same way for everyone. The programme is helping us think more deeply about the people who could benefit from our solution and how to make it practical,” said Ananya Agrawal.
“The process has helped us look at the solution from different perspectives and understand what it would take to make it useful beyond the ideation stage,” said Adityasai Balakrishnaganandam.
Their journey reflects what is increasingly visible across Samsung Solve for Tomorrow: innovation can start anywhere. It can begin with a teenager noticing a problem in Raipur just as easily as it can emerge from one of India’s established innovation hubs.
Samsung Solve for Tomorrow seeks to be a partner in that journey. By bringing mentorship, design thinking, technology and prototyping support to young innovators across the country, the programme is helping give promising ideas a pathway to move forward.
The Top 40 teams will now participate in a 10-day Innovation Bootcamp, where they will receive intensive mentoring from startup founders and industry experts at FITT-IIT Delhi. As part of the Bootcamp, the teams will also get an opportunity to visit Samsung R&D Institute India – Delhi, Samsung R&D Institute India – Noida, Samsung R&D Institute India – Bangalore, Samsung Design Delhi, and Samsung’s Regional Headquarters in Gurugram.
The teams will then compete for a place in the Top 20, which will receive further support to strengthen and advance their solutions ahead of the Grand Finale.
At the culmination of the programme, the four winning teams will collectively receive incubation grants worth INR 2 crore, along with incubation support from FITT-IIT Delhi, helping them take their solutions towards further development and market-ready.
For Ananya and Adityasai, making the national Top 40 is only the beginning. Their journey from Raipur shows how the next generation of Indian innovation is emerging from every corner of the country — and how the right platform can help a young idea travel far beyond the place where it began.
