Vande Bharatam

Before you start

Vande Bharatam's first dated round closed in July 2026. What stays open is a rolling submission route into the platform, so treat an application now as joining a pool for mentoring and introductions rather than entering a competition with a deadline.

Read the terms before you write anything. Two points matter more than the form: registering is explicitly not a right to take part, and submitting material grants the organisers a perpetual licence to use it for running and promoting the show, with nothing held in confidence. Keep anything genuinely confidential — unfiled patent detail, unpublished data — out of the submission.

Choosing your track

Pick the right registration track at the start, because it decides which form you fill. Founders and individual innovators use the startup or innovator track. There are separate tracks for NRI and overseas startups, for institutions, colleges and incubators wanting to partner, for mentors, judges and influencers, for venture capitalists, for NGOs, and for Adani employees.

If you qualify for one of the five special categories — Women Entrepreneurs, Tribal Innovators, Rural Changemakers, Sustainable Innovation, Divyang Entrepreneurs — say so. These carry their own recognition, and they are the part of the initiative built for founders outside the usual startup networks.

What the form asks for

Registration takes a name, a venture name, a mobile number and email verified by a one-time password, your country, state, district, city and pincode, and a preferred language. The application itself asks for your stage (ideation, prototype, product ready or revenue stage), team size, sector, technology tags, business type, market size, revenue model, current traction, funding status and how much you are looking to raise. It also asks for the problem you are solving, your solution and what makes it different — the same three headings the finalist profiles are published under, so write those as if they will be read publicly.

What to emphasise

The initiative's stated framing is grassroots: local ideas with global potential, solutions for Indian problems, and self-reliance. Applications that show a working prototype or early users, and that make the Indian problem concrete, sit closest to what the organisers say they are looking for. Age, city and stage are not filters — an idea-stage solo applicant is explicitly in scope.

What to expect

Selection criteria are not published, and the organisers say they are under no obligation to explain a decision. Do not plan around a response date.

Vande Bharatam is an innovation competition and open innovation platform run as an Adani Group initiative, attributed on its own site to Gautam Adani. It invites innovators and founders from anywhere in India to submit an idea or a venture, and puts a shortlist of them through mentoring, a live pitch and a national television broadcast. It is run out of Adani Corporate House in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, and describes itself as "India's largest grassroots innovation movement".

What it is

Vande Bharatam is not an incubator with a campus, desks or labs. Its own terms describe it as an initiative "open to persons across all ages and fields" that works as an entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem platform, of which the televised show is one component. The site says the aim is to find ventures emerging from places that established startup networks tend to miss, and to give them visibility, support and momentum.

The first phase ran to a fixed calendar in 2026. Applications opened on 24 June and closed on 30 July. National finalists were picked by 1 August, took part in a finalist week of mentoring, bootcamps and presentations from 8 to 14 August, and pitched live to Gautam Adani at a grand finale in Ahmedabad on 14 August 2026. A ten-episode series then aired from 29 August to 17 September on NDTV, NDTV India and NDTV Profit, with unedited pitch sessions published on the initiative's YouTube channel. The site gives different finalist counts in different places, so this page does not print one.

That dated round is over. The site now says the first phase has concluded but that the platform stays open, and invites innovators to keep submitting ideas for mentoring, introductions to investors and the chance to work with the Adani ecosystem. There is no published deadline for those rolling submissions, and the closing call-to-action on the homepage still shows the expired July date.

Who can apply

The entry bar is deliberately low. The site repeats "open to all ages and fields" in both the platform section and the application timeline, and no incorporation requirement appears anywhere: the application form accepts a team size of "Solo" and a stage of "Ideation", alongside prototype, product-ready and revenue-stage ventures. Minors can take part where a parent or guardian registers and acts for them, and the organisers say they may ask for proof of age and guardian consent. There is no sector gate — the form's own sector list runs from agriculture and rural economy through health, manufacturing, mobility, defence and public systems to artificial intelligence and deep tech.

Applicants pick one of eight participant tracks when they register: startup or innovator, special category, institution or incubator or college, NRI or overseas startup, mentor or judge or influencer, venture capitalist, NGO, and a separate track for Adani employees. Five special categories carry their own recognition — Women Entrepreneurs, Tribal Innovators, Rural Changemakers, Sustainable Innovation and Divyang Entrepreneurs.

One caveat is stated plainly in the terms and worth knowing before you spend time on an application: registering on the site does not by itself create any right to take part, and detailed eligibility and selection criteria are set separately by the organisers rather than published up front.

What selected innovators get

The site describes four benefits. Mentorship comes from the Adani leadership team, business leaders and domain experts. Investor and industry access means introductions to potential partners, investors and industry stakeholders. Strategic partnerships cover collaboration, market access and growth opportunities. Incubation support is described as structured guidance to turn an idea into a scalable venture. Finalists also get a national spotlight across television and digital platforms. The site advertises a prize pool but does not publish what it consists of.

How selection works

The published process is a funnel: open applications, a shortlist of national finalists, a finalist week of mentoring and bootcamps, a live grand finale, then the broadcast. Beyond that the terms say only that assessment is on merit, skill, capability, innovation, business potential and performance, never by lottery or random draw, and that evaluation may involve the organisers, production partners, sponsors, investors, mentors, judges and outside experts. All decisions are final, and the organisers state they are under no obligation to publish scoring criteria or reasons for non-selection.

One term is worth reading closely. Applicants keep ownership of their own intellectual property, but submitting an application grants the organisers and their partners a perpetual, worldwide, sublicensable licence to use the submitted material for running, judging, producing and promoting the show — and the terms say nothing submitted is held in confidence.

Where it runs and how to reach it

Vande Bharatam is administered from Adani Corporate House, Shantigram, near Vaishnodevi Circle on S G Highway, Ahmedabad 382421, Gujarat. The grand finale was held in Ahmedabad. Enquiries go to contact@vandebharatam.org, and the site also publishes a missed-call number. Applications are made on the website; mobile apps are available on Google Play and the App Store. There is no careers page and no events listing.