The Azim Premji University Social Enterprise Cell invites students from across India to propose innovative and impactful ideas that provide solutions to the problems posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Come up with ideas that can help institutions, communities and individuals face and overcome the many issues that are coming up with the COVID-19 crisis. 

COVID-19 is far more than a health crisis. It has affected the economy and livelihood of people and has challenged our institutions and systems overall as a society. The people worst hit and most vulnerable to the crisis are marginal farmers, casual labourers in agriculture and allied sectors; small scale fishers, artisans, petty traders, informal workers (in both urban and rural places)and forest dwellers. There is a need for innovative and doable ideas to mitigate the crisis as well as offer solutions for a better future.

This year’s ​‘Idea Challenge Initiative’, we are looking for:

• Solutions that will empower communities: Strengthening livelihood, public health, service delivery, local governance and education. 
• Solutions that will support NGOs, philanthropic organisations, and citizen groups in their pandemic response.
• Solutions that will equip our front-line workers: ASHA, ANM, ICDS, nurses and NGO frontline workers.
• Solutions that will strengthen the monitoring systems at any scale.
• Solutions that will enhance specific measures by hospitals, municipalities, gram panchayats and block panchayats, etc.

Who can participate:

• Students enrolled in Class 11 and 12
• Students in colleges and Universities
• Students in research institutions.

Submission criteria:

• Submissions must be from a team consisting of more than one student. Students can be from the same institution or students from different institutions can collaborate.
• The idea must be sensitive to the ecological concerns as well as to equity and social justice.
  
• The proposed solutions will be judged on their feasibility and sustainability, resource mobilization, innovativeness, community involvement, social justice and a minimal impact on the environment.

Preference will be given to submissions that try to provide details of a preliminary engagement with their proposed target group. This can be either a basic survey to understand the status or a small pilot of an intervention done by the team members.