📌 About the Initiative

The Bharat Water Innovation Network (Bharat WIN) is a premier national technological deployment program orchestrated by the Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation (DoWR, RD & GR), Ministry of Jal Shakti, Government of India.

The initiative connects state-of-the-art scientific research with scalable entrepreneurship to tackle India’s critical bottlenecks in water accessibility, conservation, and sustainability. The National Institute of Hydrology (NIH), Roorkee, serves as the designated Project Implementation Agency (PIA) overseeing the evaluations. Following the initial selection of 19 hackathon teams awarded ₹1 Lakh each for early-stage conceptualization, the Ministry has launched this long-term Open Call for Startups and MSMEs to provide extensive Grant-in-Aid funding for engineering market-ready field technologies.

📅 Critical Timelines & Campaign Horizon

• Open Call Launch Date: June 1, 2026
• Proposal Submission Deadline: July 31, 2026 (23:59 IST) [Active & Open Now]
• Event Modality: 100% Digital Submission of engineering proposals, financials, and verification documentation natively through the official ministry gateway.

🎓 Eligibility Parameters & Team Formations

• Exclusive Target Cohorts: Strictly restricted to Registered Indian Startups and Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). Individual students or un-incorporated entities are ineligible unless partnered with a registered business entity.
• Team Structuring: There are zero restrictions regarding total team size, gender metrics, or specific professional designations.
• Language Requirement: All technical project layouts, budgets, and milestones must be submitted exclusively in English.

🧠 Predefined Problem Statements (P01 – P12)

Proposals must demonstrate a minimum baseline target of Technology Readiness Level 3 (TRL-3)—meaning an Experimental Proof of Concept validated through laboratory or localized algorithmic testing.

• Resources & Harvesting Efficiency:
  • P01: Mobile/Web app calculating site-specific rooftop rainwater harvesting yield potentials and structural sizing based on rainfall data, subsurface details, and consumption needs.
  • P08: Data-integrated monitoring systems to calculate Water Use Efficiency (WUE) across domestic residences, apartments, and commercial industrial zones.
• Automation, Drone Data, & Remote Sensing:
  • P03: UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) surveillance systems leveraging onboard multispectral sensors and image processing pipelines to map real-time river levels and in-situ water quality.
  • P04: Floating, solar/battery-powered IoT sensor arrays capable of automated, continuous measurement and wireless transmission of physicochemical parameters of rivers.
  • P07: Early warning systems merging hydrodynamic modeling, remote sensing, and IoT arrays to forecast Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs) and rapid urban flash floods.
• Field Diagnostics & Decentralized Sanitation:
  • P05: Low-maintenance decentralized treatment infrastructure targeting the localized remediation, safe reuse, and surface disposal of domestic grey and black water.
  • P06: Portable, handheld field devices optimized for rapid on-site biochemical and bacteriological assay detection using digital data processing.
  • P09: AI-driven Decision Support Systems (DSS) utilizing modeling frameworks to ensure optimized safe drinking water networks.
• Sludge Curation & Plastic Remediations:
  • P02: Energy-efficient, decentralized systems for volume reduction, processing, and environmentally compliant sorting of plastic waste to protect localized groundwater tables.
  • P10: Low-energy automated sludge dewatering, thickening, and drying rigs utilizing SCADA process controls or biogas thermal recovery.
  • P11: Instantaneous hardware characterization systems mapping heavy metals and toxicity profiles within industrial sludge assets.
  • P12: Cost-effective processing technologies to refine wastewater sludge into safe, FCO-compliant soil conditioners and bio-fertilizers.

📥 Mandatory Deliverables & Documentation

Once a proposal is pushed live, it cannot be edited or resubmitted. Ensure your application package natively embeds:

1. Complete structural organization profiles alongside authentic Startup/MSME Registration Certificates.
2. An official signed Endorsement Letter.
3. A clear breakdown of the methodology, milestones, budget estimates, and precise target Technology Readiness Levels (TRL).

🏢 Physical Secretariat Headquarter Details

• Correspondence Node: Hackathon Secretariat, National Institute of Hydrology (NIH), Jal Vigyan Bhawan, Roorkee, District Haridwar, Uttarakhand – 247667, India.
• Contact Desk: +91-1332-249410 | Fax: +91-1332-272123
• Dedicated Informational Mailbox: hackathon.nihr@gov.in