Darsana is a global Diaspora of Engineers who have established a common platform for discourse, discoveries, and interventions on challenging issues in social/engineering avenues in Kerala. Along with sharing a common academic lineage as alumni of the NSS College of Engineering, Palakkad, we also share the vision of an equitable society and are striving to achieve it through our programs. One of our objectives is to act as an eco-system for nurturing innovation and promote startups in Kerala, thereby driving socially relevant ventures and social enterprises.

In December 2020, Darsana launched first edition of IGNITE, a platform aimed at being a springboard for budding technologists and entrepreneurs. Our goal is to make our innovation platform available to students, technologists, and all inquisitive minds on an ongoing manner to experiment, create, revise, and evolve along with our panel of technical experts and mentors.

Key objectives of IGNITE:

1. Conduct innovation and entrepreneurship competitions and challenges aimed at student community to inculcate a culture of inquiry and seed thoughts on social enterprises
2. Conduct events focused on rural innovation, to identify innovations made by practitioners through their experiences. Help improve existing models, recognise such inventions, and popularize them.
3. Allow use of our platform to store, showcase and popularize social enterprises and rural inventions.
4. Create a B2B and B2C marketplace for social enterprises and rural innovators to launch their business or solution with a low-cost entry barrier.
5. Create a common eco system of various bodies like start-up mission, maker village, IRTC and all such bodies that work on similar goals.
6. Provide opportunity to onboard projects with social goals such as promoting Open-Source or open engineering and design.
7. Create a meeting place for investors, innovators, and social entrepreneurs.
8. Be a platform for knowledge sharing through trainings and workshops.

Participation in IGNITE 2025 is free and is open for the following people

• All Keralites (including students currently studying in Kerala) are eligible to participate.
• Darsana Family Members: Immediate family members of Darsana members can participate, regardless of their location.

• Registration and Comprehensive Submission of project information is mandatory to participate in the competition.
• Details of all the team members should be entered at the time of submission.
• Maximum allowed team size is 8 including team leader.
• If a participant is part of any existing entity, the entity should not be more than two years old.
• In case of Students, a letter from your Institution Head or HOD confirming that you are a student, has to be furnished at an appropriate stage in the competition.
• Only one entry is allowed per team but the individual members can be part of other teams.
• The innovative idea submitted should not be one, which is already commercially implemented elsewhere.

• Registration opens – 09 August 2025
• Registration closes – 30 August 2025

The received data will be screened for completeness and quality of submission. So, it is important to ensure that all the required inputs are included while Registration and Project submission.

• Announcement of shortlisted proposals – 20 September 2025
• All the shortlisted proposals will receive Panel feedback for improvement. Projects that are not selected will be given a reason for rejection.
• (The next round will involve a virtual meeting between the Panel members and the project teams. During this meeting, teams will have the opportunity to present their projects in detail.)
• Projects that are shortlisted from the virtual round will advance to the Grand Finale, scheduled for October 11th and 12th, 2025 at Palakkad. Teams will present their innovations at this event, and the winners will be selected during the Grand Finale.

There are two categories of events scheduled on IGNITE 2025, IGNITE Innovation Challenge and Hackathon 2025.
The teams which like to participate in Hackathon2025 need to do a separate registration at IGNITE platform.

If you're ready to spark change and share your innovative project, follow these steps to participate in the IGNITE Innovation Challenge:

Step 1: Get Started Online The Team Leader should visit https://ignite.darsana.in/ to create a login ID and password.

Step 2: Register Your Team Once logged in, register for IGNITE 2025 at https://ignite.darsana.in/ and fill in all the required details before the due date. You'll see a pop-up confirmation once your registration is successful. Remember, you can edit your details in the "profile section" anytime before the deadline.

Step 3: Submit Your Project Complete the submission page with the requested information and upload the following:

       ● Detailed Project Proposal: A PDF-readable document. The specific data required will be listed on the submission page.

       ● Project Summary: A presentation in PPT, ODF, or PDF format.

       ● Short Explanatory Video: Upload a video (MP4, AVI, WMI, or MPEG format only) explaining the key aspects of your project to your Google Drive. Ensure you set the access to "anyone with a link," then copy and paste the link into the designated space on the submission page.

The criteria for selection of best project will be based on the following

• Technical and business feasibility
• Innovativeness
• Problem being addressed
• Social relevance

● Prize money of Rs.25,000 and a certificate for each winner. Total 6 winners.

● Conducted by Darsana, an organization that has more than 1000 engineering professionals, many amongst them being in senior management roles and/or entrepreneurs. This provides potential for good visibility for raising angel funds.

● Conducted in partnership with Kerala Technological University, Digital University Kerala, Kerala Start-up Mission, KDISC and other major organizations driving innovation and entrepreneurship.

● Wild card (Direct) entry to the idea fest conducted by Kerala Start-up Mission.

● Wild card (Direct) entry to the YIP conducted by KDISC.

● Our expert team shall provide insights into preparing a good technical and commercial proposal and identify risks associated.

● Proposals with potential for conversion to a startup will be provided incubation support. Support can be provided for both physical and virtual incubation. Workspace with shared office facilities like seating space, common meeting / conference room, teleconferencing facilities and access to library. This is done in association with our partners.

● Similarly, such projects will be provided support of a mentoring team consisting of technical experts from different sectors and business experts who can provide business and marketing assistance.

● Darsana shall provide technical assistance to file for IPR or patents if required.

● Darsana will try to connect the startups under incubation with potential investors.

● Ignite platform will be open for ongoing interactions even after the event is over. Our team will try and assist you as long as it is required to convert to a sustainable venture.

● Entrepreneurship Development Program (EDP) for the winners and finalists by TECHIN - IIT Palakkad.

● Incubation support, in line with our policies, to the winning team by TECHIN - IIT Palakkad.

● Access to fabrication and testing facilities available at IPTIF - IIT Palakkad.

● Nomination to Upskill Program by IPTIF - IIT Palakkad.

1. The Contest is held in English throughout. All relevant information, including the online registration form, is in English.
2. The prizes will be awarded and paid in INR to the Team Leader of a qualifying team. The Team Leader is obliged to distribute the applicable amount to each member of his or her team. The Organizers will not in any way be responsible for the division of the prizes among the members of the team
3. The tax liability to the Funds and Prizes are the sole responsibility of the receiver. Prizes may be subject to tax reporting and other formalities. Applicable team/s fully cooperate in fulfilling all applicable legal requirements.
4. By making a submission in the contest, all teams warrant and represent that to the best of their knowledge, their submission is original and does not violate or misappropriate any third-party trade secret, know-how, copyright, patent or other intellectual property rights. Entrants also warrant and represent that there are no obligations of any nature, legal or otherwise, which would prohibit, restrict, or interfere with their participation in the Contest or submission of their design report, and agree to obtain any necessary clearances, authorizations and/or approvals prior to participation.
5. The Entrants agree that no information submitted by the Entrants will be treated by Organizers as confidential, including without limitation any of the information set forth in Section 7. For the avoidance of doubt, some information submitted by the Entrants may be considered proprietary, such as information that may attract intellectual property rights including without limitation, copyrights, trademarks and patents, any kind of inventions, innovation or novel ideas. However, by entering this Contest, the Entrants expressly waive their right to have this proprietary information kept confidential.
6. Each team and each Entrant hereby grant Organizers a non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual, and royalty-free right and license to publish their project reports, designs and other information submitted, or any portion or modification thereof. In case of Intellectual property rights, concurrence will be taken for the quantum of details publicized. The Organizers reserves the right to publish the designs without attribution. Except for these limited rights to publish, the Organizers does not obtain any other ownership, rights or licenses in any of the students’, team’s or University’s intellectual property or confidential information.
7. DATA PROTECTION, CONSENT TO THE USE OF PERSONAL DATA: Personal data (as hereinafter defined) provided by the Entrants and the Faculty Mentor during the Contest will be used by Organizers as well as by service providers (for e.g. website hosting services) engaged by Organizers as data processors, for the purpose of the Contest. The Entrants and all other participating parties including without limitation the Faculty Mentors, agree that any personal data, which shall mean any data identifying, without limitation, its owner, by name, NRIC number, correspondence address, email address and contact number (“Personal Data”) which is disclosed by any individual or obtained by the Organizers or its Contractual Partners, inclusive of their designated vendors (“Workers and Vendors”) prior to or during the course of performance of this Contest, shall be processed, maintained, disclosed or destroyed in accordance with the relevant terms of consent set out in the Contest Terms and Conditions. For the avoidance of doubt, every Entrant and individual who submits his or her data for the purpose of participating in this Contest shall be deemed to have given express consent for the processing, use, retention or disclosure of such Personal Data for the purposes set out above and in Section 6.
8. By entering the Contest, each Entrant agrees to release Organizers and its affiliates from and against any losses, damages, rights, claims and actions of any kind arising from (i) an exclusion or disqualification of such Entrant pursuant to these Rules; (ii) late, lost, misdirected, or unsuccessful efforts to notify winners of any prize; (iii) forfeiture of a prize and the selection of an alternate winner; (iv) late, lost, delayed, damaged, misdirected, incomplete, illegible or unintelligible entries; (v) telephone, electronic, hardware or software program, network, Internet, or computer malfunctions, failures or difficulties of any kind; (vi) failed, incomplete, garbled or delayed computer transmissions; (vii) any condition caused by events beyond Organizer’s control that may cause the Contest to be disrupted or corrupted; and (viii) any injuries, losses or damages of any kind relating to participation in this Contest.
9. The Organizers reserve the right to cancel, terminate, modify or (temporarily) suspend this Contest where required by law or if there is an impediment to the performance of this contract due to a breach by any of the Organizer’s contractual partners, or a delay in funding, or a force majeure event, or it becomes technically corrupted or if for any reason the Internet portion of the Contest is not capable of running as planned, including infections by computer virus, bugs, tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud, technical failures or any other causes beyond Organizer’s control, which corrupt or affect the administration, security, fairness, integrity or proper conduct of this Contest. The organizers further reserve the right, in its sole discretion, to disqualify anyone found to have manipulated the Contest or its operation. In addition, the organizers at its sole discretion may disqualify any Entrant at any stage of the Contest without being required to specify any reasons in that regard.
10. In respect of any suits, actions, proceedings, claims or disputes in relation to this contest, the courts situated at Palakkad, India shall enjoy sole jurisdiction.