"Become job creators, not job seekers", 1,000 students participate at St. John's College
Youth receive information about government schemes, leading mentors provide guidance
Winners receive incentive money, Crochet Enterprise, Cycle Soil and Artera emerge winners
Next program to be held at Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar University in Agra on September 15
Agra, Sept 2026 : To translate Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's vision of a self-reliant Uttar Pradesh into reality, a grand 'UP RISE' program was organized at St. John's College on MG Road. More than 1,000 students from the city and adjoining areas participated in the program with great enthusiasm. The main objective of the event was to ensure that the state's youth do not remain merely job seekers, but establish their own enterprises and become 'job creators' by employing others.
During the program, youth were given detailed information about various employment-oriented policies of the state government. Experts placed special emphasis on the Mukhyamantri Yuva Udyami Yojana, Mukhyamantri Swarojgar Yojana and schemes related to women empowerment. They explained how financial assistance and subsidies can be obtained on easy terms. Harshit Desai, Rahul Sarangi and Sairaj Dhond joined the program as mentors to guide the students. Mentor Harshit Desai, currently the Managing Partner at Strativity (Asia and Middle East) and previously in senior roles at Aditya Birla Finance and KPMG, shared lessons from his 23 years of experience on innovation and building scalable consumer internet products.
The event received 35 startup ideas, and 10 of the best were shortlisted. These included Cycle Soil, biodegradable sanitary pads made from organic cotton, bamboo and agricultural waste; The Mandala Studio, handmade Mandala art products; Bio Fresh, a smart dairy packaging system with QR code tracking; Artera, a customisable tattoo and face painting service; Biocoat, a biodegradable sleeve for protecting seeds; Waste to Wealth, production of bioethanol from wastewater generated by the petha industry and rice straw; Peer Pods, an AI-powered study partner platform; Proteoscope, protein sequence analysis and 3D structure prediction for biotechnology; and Project Anvita, an NEP-based internship platform.
After presenting their ideas before the jury and industry experts, the women-led 'Crochet Enterprise' secured first place and won the main prize of Rs 25,000. This startup is transforming traditional crochet skills into modern products such as bags, phone covers, keychains, crop tops and hair accessories. Meanwhile, the teams of 'Cycle Soil' and 'Artera' jointly secured second place and were honored with an incentive amount of Rs 15,000.
The UP RISE program will be organized in 30 leading colleges across 25 cities of the state. Through this initiative, talented students of the state will get direct internship and employment opportunities in major companies. The next stop of this initiative in Agra will be Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar University on September 15, 2026. These innovative ideas have proved that the youth of Uttar Pradesh are fully prepared to play a leading role in building a self-reliant India.
