Viksit Bharat Buildathon 2025: Guinness record, 10 national winners honoured; new ULLAS guidelines released

What happened

Union Minister of State for Education Jayant Chaudhary on 28 October 2026 honoured the 10 national winning teams and innovators of Viksit Bharat Buildathon (VBB) 2025 in New Delhi. On the occasion, VBB 2025 was given a Guinness World Records certificate as the “largest innovation solutions competition”. The minister also gave prizes to students who won a quiz on e-waste.

What the Buildathon is

The competition was organised by the Department of School Education and Literacy (DOSEL) of the Union Education Ministry with the Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), NITI Aayog and the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). Its aim was to promote creative problem-solving, entrepreneurship and scientific curiosity among school students. According to the release, students were encouraged to identify problems and find solutions themselves, without any pre-set problem or solution. The initiative rested on four pillars: ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’, ‘Swadeshi’, ‘Vocal for Local’ and ‘Samriddh Bharat’.

How many entries and winners

A total of 2,87,967 project entries were received across the Idea and Prototype categories. These were assessed through a three-tier framework at district, state and national levels, run by panels of experts from different fields. After this, 10 national, 100 state and 1,000 district award winners were selected.

Who got how much

Prize money of more than ₹1 crore was kept across the district, state and national levels. The 10 national teams received ₹17.50 lakh in cash in all. Each of the top 5 prototype teams got ₹2,50,000 for its working model. Each of the 5 winning idea teams got ₹1,00,000 to take its ideas forward. The winners honoured were from Assam, Delhi, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh.

New guidelines for ULLAS

Guidelines for Teacher Education Institutions (TEIs) were released under the ULLAS - Nav Bharat Saaksharta Karyakram. They envisage the participation of student-teachers enrolled in NCTE-recognised teacher education programmes, such as B.Ed, B.P.Ed, M.Ed, M.P.Ed and other recognised courses, as ‘volunteer teachers’.

Under the guidelines, each student-teacher has to help 5 to 8 people who are not literate to become literate and get certified. If they do this successfully, they will get academic credits in return. DOSEL prepared the guidelines after wide consultation with stakeholders, and they also set out the roles of NCTE, NCERT, CNCL, SCERT, DIET, State Literacy Mission Authorities, district authorities, TEIs and student-teachers.

Focus on e-waste

Under ‘Special Campaign 6.0’, both departments of the ministry worked to spread awareness about e-waste and boost its collection. DOSEL Secretary T. K. Anil Kumar handed over e-waste collected during the campaign to an authorised recycler. Schools held morning assemblies and quizzes on e-waste. The minister said tackling e-waste is a shared responsibility of institutions, communities and citizens.