NothereforaHackathon?We got you!
Learn while you compete. Every stage opens with a curated tutorial built for that round. Then you build. Then you compete.
- Learn
- Build
- Compete
216 already on the waitlist
₹10L
Prize pool
6
Domains
Up to 4
Members per team
Travel & Stay
Covered for finalists by us
12 and 13 February 2027 · Grand Final at XIM Bhubaneswar · travel & stay covered for finalists
Domains: Healthcare, Media & Entertainment, Marketing, Sustainability, Public Health, DeepTech
Why compete
You leave with more than a result
₹10 lakh prize pool
Stand to win from a pool of ₹10 lakh across the championship.
A network of builders
Compete alongside budding entrepreneurs from campuses across India, and leave knowing them.
A problem worth solving
Our feedback and judging connect you to the right problem, and to the solution the market will actually take.
What is ARC
Build AI that actually helps
a hackathona business-plan contest
It is a structured, multi-stage challenge where teams think rigorously, build meaningfully, and pitch with conviction.
The sustainability lens · applied in every round, across every domain
Social
Access, equity, and community impact: who is included, and who genuinely benefits.
Environmental
Carbon, resource use, and consequence, with the planet treated as a stakeholder.
Economic
Livelihoods, viability, and long-term value, beyond growth metrics alone.
The world does not need more AI. It needs better AI. And the question every jury asks is the same: if this scales, does the world become better?
How it works · February edition
January to build. February to pitch.
Registration opens on 1 December and the rounds run through January, clear of the festive week and of end-term exams. Here is the whole thing, so you know what it asks of your term before you enter.
Why the dates moved
Round one is closed. The championship moves to February.
We closed the first round of registration early. The response was far larger than we planned for, and with it came the same request from students, societies and colleges, over and over: the rounds collided with the festive season, and for many campuses they ran straight into end-term exams.
The venue was booked. The stay for finalists was arranged. The judging panels were confirmed. We are moving the whole thing anyway, because asking someone to choose between their exams and their venture is not a championship worth winning.
So registration reopens on 1 December, and the rounds that ask the most of you, the field work and the build, sit in January once exams are behind you. The final is on a Friday and Saturday, so nobody misses class to be on that stage.
Already entered round one? Your entry carries over to February and there is nothing to pay again. If the new dates do not work for you, write to arc@dairaedtech.in and we will refund you in full.
Everything else stands: ₹10 Lakhs in prize money, travel and stay covered for every finalist, and the final at XIM Bhubaneswar.
Registration opens
Tue 1 Dec
Rounds before the final
3
Grand Finale
12 to 13 Feb
Where
XIM Bhubaneswar
Registration
1 Dec to 24 Dec24 daysOpen to allEnter for yourself, form a team of up to four if you want one, pick your domain, and state in one line the problem you intend to take on. Closes the day before Christmas.
Screening
25 to 27 Dec3 daysWe read every entry and check it is a real problem, not a product looking for one.
Session 1·Direction Clinic·Sun 27 Dec
How to turn a broad interest into a problem worth a month of your time.
Idea Brief
28 to 1 Jan5 daysStructured briefThe problem, who has it, why AI belongs in the answer, and two or three impact measures you would stand behind.
Scoring
2 to 5 Jan4 daysEvery brief is read and scored, and you get back where you stood.
Session 2·Ground Truth field method·Tue 5 Jan
How to check a belief against the field without a research budget.
Ground Truth
6 to 12 Jan7 daysField evidenceLeave the desk. Come back with what the people who have this problem actually told you.
Scoring
13 to 15 Jan3 daysScored against the field, with the notes that decide what you build.
Session 3·Build & Pitch studio kickoff·Fri 15 Jan
What a working demo has to prove, and what a jury listens for in ten minutes.
Build & Pitch
16 to 28 Jan13 daysPrototype and pitchBuild the thing. Thirteen days, the longest round, because this is the one where a venture either exists or does not.
Scoring and finalists
29 to 1 Feb4 daysPanels expert in AI and in sustainability score every submission. Finalists hear by 1 February.
Travel window
2 to 11 Feb10 daysTen days to arrange the trip and reach Bhubaneswar without missing class. Travel and stay are covered for finalists.
Session 4·Grand Final coaching·Wed 3 Feb onward
For the finalists: the stage, the questions, and how to hold a room.
Grand Finale
Fri 11 and Sat 12 February
Ten minutes, a live demo, and an open jury of leaders, investors and practitioners.
Republic Day falls inside the build window, so the long weekend is yours to use rather than a deadline to dodge.
Pick your domain
Where does AI matter most?
Every team picks one area to build in. Bring your own problem and your own approach.
Healthcare
Diagnostics, preventive care, mental wellbeing, and access across geographies.
Featured · maternal & child healthMedia & Entertainment
Regional-language access, creator empowerment, ethical content, and cultural preservation.
Marketing
Ethical personalisation, purpose-driven campaigns, and tools that help small businesses compete.
Sustainability
Climate, energy, water, agriculture, biodiversity, waste, and the circular-economy transition.
Public Health
Disease surveillance, vaccination access, sanitation, nutrition, and health-data infrastructure.
DeepTech
Robotics, materials, semiconductors, biotech, energy, or novel AI infrastructure.
No prototype · research & feasibilityOptional innovation tracks
Green Nudges
Behavioural change for sustainable choices.
Sustainability Marketing
Honest, measurable storytelling for purpose-led brands.
Gamification for Good
Habit tools and loops that move real-world metrics.
Impact Measurement
Systems that quantify social, environmental & economic outcomes.
How teams are judged
One hundred marks
Every submission, in every domain, is scored out of the same hundred. Here is exactly where they go.
Commit to numbers. Every team names 2 or 3 measurable indicators: % cost reduction, emissions saved, users reached, time-to-care, livelihoods improved.
Who it's for
Built for builders
You don't need a company, a lab, or a finished plan. Just a team and something you want to build.
Students
Undergrad or postgrad, any discipline (engineering, management, design, medicine, media, or environmental science) with an idea worth building.
Any discipline
Early founders
Pre-seed or ideation-stage builders who want real jury feedback, national visibility, and the kind of pressure that makes an idea stronger.
Pre-seed & ideation
Mixed teams
A blend of technical, design, and domain minds: the combination the most impactful AI ventures are actually built on.
Interdisciplinary
The Grand Final
More than a pitch.
The best teams from every domain come together for the Grand Final. If you make it, we've got you covered, so you can focus on the work, not the logistics.
Total prize pool · for finalists
₹10 Lakhs
Awarded across the six domains at the national final, with extra recognition for standout innovation-track alignment.
International-standard venue
Hosted at XIM Bhubaneswar, a stage worth building for.
Travel, covered
We arrange and cover travel for every finalist to reach the final.
Stay, covered
Accommodation for finalists is on us for the duration of the final.
ARC goodies & kit
Every finalist walks away with ARC merch and a builder's goodie kit.
A real network
Founders, mentors, investors, and builders who think like you.
A serious jury
Industry leaders, investors, technologists, and sustainability practitioners.
Who is behind ARC
A studio that builds for the 90%
Daira EdTech Pvt. Ltd. is a venture and R&D studio in Bhubaneswar. It researches problems that get overlooked, then builds ventures that reach the ground through government partnerships rather than stopping at a pilot.
Its ventures are already in the field: Jiveesha, an AI platform for the early detection of learning disabilities, and Kokh.AI in maternal health, both built with clinical experts and public institutions.
ARC exists because the studio has been on the other side of this: pitching an AI product to a national jury and being judged on whether it actually worked.
Recognised by
- Innovation Challenge winner
- MoU, Govt. of India
Two ventures in the field: Jiveesha and Kokh.AI.
From the studio's own work: screenings, school launches, government partnerships and the teams behind them.
Sponsorship
The organisations backing the build
ARC runs on the organisations that fund the prize pool, host the stage and open doors for the teams that reach it. Sponsors are named at every tier: here, on stage at the Grand Final, and in everything we publish.
Open for 2026
Three ways to put your name on it
Domain track sponsor
Put your name on one of the six domains, shape its brief, and sit on the jury that scores it.
Prize & scholarship partner
Add to the ₹10 Lakhs pool, or underwrite travel and stay for teams who could not otherwise reach the final.
In-kind partner
Compute credits, tooling, datasets or mentor hours: the things a student team cannot buy.
Community partners
The groups that bring the teams
Student clubs, E-cells, coding communities, maker spaces and college societies carry ARC to the people who will actually enter it. Partnering costs nothing. It's a straight exchange of reach for recognition.
What you do
Share the call with your members, host an information session, and help teams form before registration closes.
What you get
Your logo on this page and in the ARC deck, a named mention at the Grand Final, and priority access to mentor sessions for your members.
Who it suits
Any group with an audience of students or early founders. Size matters far less than how engaged your community actually is.
Partner with ARC
Two ways to be part of it
Tell us which one fits and we'll come back with the detail: tiers, dates and what your name sits beside. Both reach the same desk.
Sponsor ARC
For companies, foundations and institutions funding the stage, the prize pool or a domain track.
Become a community partner
For clubs, E-cells, societies and communities bringing teams to ARC.
Good to know
ARC, answered
Come build something real.
You don't need a company, a lab, or a finished plan. Registration reopens on 1 December; leave your address at the top and we will tell you the day it does.
Contact
Talk to the people running it
Entering, coordinating for your college, sponsoring, or partnering: one desk handles all of it, and a person answers.
- Championship
- arc@dairaedtech.in
- Studio & press
- director@dairaedtech.in
- Phone
- +91 88673 90348
- Grand Final
- XIM Bhubaneswar
ARC is presented by Daira EdTech Pvt. Ltd. Meet the studio ↗
Write to us
Goes to the same desk as the addresses on the left, and we reply within two working days.