New Delhi: The National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre (NCIIPC), in collaboration with Startup India, has launched the NCIIPC Startup India AI Grand Challenge, an ambitious initiative to foster responsible AI innovation aimed at bolstering India’s national security infrastructure.
With a prize pool of ₹22.56 crore, the NCIIPC Startup India AI grand challenge invites deep tech startups and AI-focused student teams from across India to build indigenous, high-impact AI/ML-powered solutions addressing 12 mission-critical Problem Statements (PS) in domains such as cybersecurity, satellite imagery, cryptology, geospatial analytics, OSINT, and maritime surveillance.
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This 14-month-long NCIIPC Startup India AI grand challenge – set to run from August 1, 2025 to September 30, 2026 – is structured in three phases with attractive incentives for participants at each stage:
Prize and Grant Breakdown
- Stage 1 (Aug–Oct 2025): ₹3 lakh prize + ₹5 lakh grant per shortlisted team
- Stage 2: ₹10.8 crore total allocation
- Stage 3: ₹6 crore in rewards
- Post-Challenge: Eligible winning teams may receive commercial contracts for solution implementation
NCIIPC Startup India AI Grand Challenge: Key Problem Statements Include
- Vulnerability Detection Using LLMs in Open-Source Software: Develop a Large Language Model (LLM)-based tool to identify vulnerabilities in software source code and recommend mitigation strategies.
- Phishing Site Detection: Create an AI/ML-powered solution to accurately detect phishing domains and webpages, especially those targeting specific organizations.
- Satellite Imagery Object Search and Detection: Design a system that automates the search, identification, and detection of objects across various satellite images, while generating labeled datasets for training advanced object detection models.
- Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) for Q&A: Build a Retrieval-Augmented Generation-based question answering system capable of delivering accurate and context-aware responses.
- Intelligent Multilingual Document Processing: Develop a high-accuracy OCR and intelligent text extraction solution for digitizing documents in multiple languages.
- Speaker Recognition and Transcription System: Create a language-agnostic system capable of speaker identification, verification, diarization, followed by transcription and translation.
- Forensic Password Extraction and Decryption: Design a solution to extract and decrypt passwords from encrypted or protected documents, drives, and compressed files for forensic investigations.
- Enhanced Emitter Localization: Build a cross-sensor localization enhancement system aimed at minimizing the Ellipse Error Probable (EEP) for improved emitter location accuracy.
- Maritime Surveillance Using AI: Develop an AI solution to detect and classify maritime objects using wide-swath SAR/EO imagery and perform multi-sensor data correlation for enhanced situational awareness.
- AI-Driven Change Detection in Satellite Imagery: Design AI algorithms to automatically detect and analyze human-induced changes in large landmasses over time using satellite imagery.
- Hyperspectral Imaging for Anomaly Detection: Develop sophisticated AI tools to identify unnatural anomalies in hyperspectral imagery with high accuracy.
- Underwater Acoustic Analysis for Object Detection: Create an AI-powered solution to detect and classify underwater objects using acoustic data for enhanced underwater domain awareness.
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NCIIPC Startup India AI Grand Challenge Timeline
- Pre-Launch & Registration: Until July 31, 2025
- Stage 1 Submissions Close: October 31, 2025
- Shortlisting & Evaluation: November 1 – December 15, 2025
- Max 6 teams per problem statement to be shortlisted for Stage 2
Eligibility
NCIIPC Startup India AI grand challenge is open to all Indian startups and student teams working in AI and capable of solving real-world, high-security challenges through responsible innovation.
This initiative aligns with India’s strategic focus on Atmanirbhar Bharat and the development of sovereign AI capabilities for defense, cybersecurity, and intelligence applications.
Click here to register for the NCIIPC Startup India AI Grand Challenge
About NCIIPC
The National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre (NCIIPC) is India’s nodal agency for protecting critical information infrastructure, under the National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO). Its mission is to ensure the cybersecurity of sectors vital to national interests.
