LocationsFrom Small Towns to Start-Up Hubs, Young Indians Get a Boost
August 12, 2025
India’s start-up scene - one of the largest in the world - is usually defined by billion-dollar valuations and metro-based unicorns. But far from those centres, a quieter wave of entrepreneurship is taking root.
In small towns, rural districts and underserved communities, young founders are tackling problems as varied as waste recycling, menstrual health and rural healthcare. They are finding their footing with help from Youth Co:Lab, a programme designed to reach the entrepreneurs the market often overlooks.
Youth Co:Lab (YCL) National Innovation Challenge is part of a regional initiative to strengthen youth-led social innovation. It offers more than seed capital. It pairs early-stage entrepreneurs with mentors, investors and peers, and gives them the business tools to turn raw ideas into viable ventures. YCL aims to establish a common agenda for countries in the Asia-Pacific region to empower and invest in youth so that they can accelerate the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through leadership, social innovation, and entrepreneurship. Co-created in 2017 by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Citi Foundation, the initiative was launched in India in 2019 in partnership with the Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), NITI Aayog.
The focus is on sectors where funding is slower to arrive: healthcare access, waste management, accessibility, climate action and education. Since its inception, the programme has supported more than 280 ventures. Some have scaled up, raised follow-on funding or partnered with governments. Others continue to grow steadily within their own communities.
Participants of the YCL National Innovation Challenge 2024-25
Inclusion is built into its design. In the latest 2024–25 edition of the YCL National Innovation Challenge, 44 percent of the finalists were women-led, two were persons with disabilities, and nearly half came from Tier 2 and Tier 3 towns, far from India’s major start-up hubs.
Project Baala: Keeping Girls in Class
While volunteering in schools in Ghana and India, Soumya Dabriwal noticed a troubling pattern: girls were missing more classes than boys. The reason was not academic - it was menstrual health. At 21, she took matters in her own hands. She began by stitching reusable pads and holding awareness sessions in low-income communities. Later, she found Youth Co:Lab on LinkedIn and applied.
“The mentorship gave me the clarity and confidence to build a more structured and impactful model,” she said.
With the programme’s backing, Project Baala expanded to address menstrual inequity through sustainable sanitary products, inclusive education and policy advocacy across South Asia and Africa. The venture has reached over 1 million women and girls, across 6 countries, including India, Nepal, Ghana, and Tanzania. It has distributed more than 3.5 million sustainable menstrual products, and facilitated over 15,000 workshops.
Her goal is clear: “By 2026, we aim to reach 2 million women and girls. Periods should never stand in the way of learning, dignity or opportunity.”
Dump in Bin: Recycling with Purpose
Engineers Rishabh Patel and Nitin Yadav were alarmed by the plastic waste piling up in their city. The problem, they realised, was not just collecting it - it was finding large-scale recycling and reuse solutions. They launched Dump in Bin to transform plastic waste into eco-friendly products, focusing first on industrial recycling and alternatives to cement-based construction materials.
Looking for guidance, they discovered Youth Co:Lab. “YCL didn’t just validate my idea, it helped refine it into a business with real-world application,” Patel said.
The start-up has processed over 700 tonnes of plastic waste and set up a pilot facility to make cement-free construction products from waste.
Yadav adds, “We are now building a Material Recovery Facility (MRF) that will create green jobs for more than 30 women from marginalised communities.”
DigiSwasthya Foundation: Bringing Care Closer
In rural Bihar, Sandeep Kumar saw how distance, cost and lack of information kept people from accessing even basic healthcare. He created DigiSwasthya to bridge that gap, blending telemedicine consultations with community outreach.
He learnt about Youth Co:Lab on social media and applied to join. The boot camp helped him improve his service delivery model and prepare for expansion.
Today, DigiSwasthya operates across six states and has provided more than 80,000 teleconsultations.
Kumar says, “We’re currently working to scale our health access model to five new aspirational districts through partnerships with local governments and UNDP’s network.”
NEMA AI: Tech Meets Empathy
Nidhi and Samarth Garg saw how neurodiverse individuals often went undiagnosed or received the wrong diagnosis, leaving them without the tools they needed to learn and thrive. Their solution was to combine neuroscience and artificial intelligence to create accessible diagnostic and support tools.
They learnt about Youth Co:Lab through the Atal Innovation Mission and LinkedIn. Nidhi says, “The 2024–25 National Innovation Challenge enabled us to expand our focus from mass-level screening, in collaboration with child development centres and hospitals, to adding diagnostic capabilities.”
NEMA AI aims to launch its full version by December 2026, with the goal of reaching 1,000 patients a month.
Garg said, “We learn from diverse perspectives and want to ensure that such solutions are accessible, reliable and trusted by those who need them most.”
The Next Hurdle
Over seven editions, Youth Co:Lab has opened doors for young founders who might otherwise have been overlooked. But starting up is only the first step.
The pandemic revealed how vulnerable youth-led ventures can be, especially in underserved areas. The challenge now is to ensure they not only survive but grow - with steady funding, strong networks and lasting market access.
For now, the programme’s alumni - from menstrual health advocates to engineers building with recycled waste - are proving that India’s next wave of entrepreneurs can come from anywhere.