About us
e-Yantra is a robotics outreach program funded by the Ministry of Education and hosted at IIT Bombay. The goal is to harness the talent of young engineers to solve problems using technology across a variety of domains such as: agriculture, manufacturing, defence, home, smart-city maintenance and service industries.
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e-Yantra is a robotics and innovation education initiative by the Ministry of Education, hosted at IIT Bombay. It empowers students and educators across South Asia with hands-on learning in robotics, embedded systems, automation, and AI. Designed to bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical application, e-Yantra equips learners to solve real-world problems using technology.
Its flagship event, the e-Yantra Robotics Competition (eYRC), is a unique "learn while you compete" platform where students tackle challenges inspired by real-life domains like agriculture, disaster management, and urban mobility.
The e-Yantra Innovation Challenge (eYIC) guides students through design thinking and entrepreneurship, helping them build impactful tech solutions 4 with winners receiving seed funding and incubation support.
To scale this impact, the e-Yantra Lab Setup Initiative (eYLSI) has helped establish robotics labs in over 500 colleges. e-Yantra also offers MOOCs and teacher development programs, creating a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship turning students into problem solvers.
For younger learners, the e-Yantra School Challenge introduces students aged 13317 to robotics and emerging technologies. Top-performing participants from eYRC and eYIC are offered internships at IIT Bombay, where they engage in R&D and personal development through curated workshops and field experiences.
Over the years, e-Yantra has catalyzed several tech startups 4 such as Surveyaan and Goat Robotics 4 highlighting its role in nurturing real-world innovation. With over 3,250 colleges impacted and increasing female participation, eYantra stands as a transformative movement shaping the future of tech-driven education and entrepreneurship in India and beyond.
History
Prof.Kavi Arya joined in early 2000s where he along with Prof. D. Phatak, then head of Kanwal Rekhi School of Information Technology, pioneered distance education in India way before other outreach programs like NPTEL etc. Through this program they were able to teach students and teachers at various colleges across the country in a scalable manner. While trying to teach his own subject, Embedded Systems, through this medium, Prof. Arya soon realised it was easier to train participants in theory but it was challenge to transmit hands-on engineering experience. So he assembled a team to design a kit that could be sent alongwith instruction manuals and recorded lectures on DVDs and found that students were able to build automation to solve real problems in a short time. Soon eYantra was proposed to the Ministry of HRD as a project under the newly formed National Mission for Education using ICT (NMEICT) and got funded. Whereas first the project tried to train teachers in the newfound skills using this unique robotic platform developed at IIT Bombay. Over 700 teachers were trained over 2 years through 3-day residential workshops. But it was a challenge to get the knowledge across. However, the breakthrough ha[pened when eYantra decided to directly reach students by packaging the training into the form of a competition. Thus eYantra Robotics Competition (eYRC) was born in 2012. Since then eYantra has been able to shatter the artificial ceiling on the complex skills that may be taught online in its skilling of students in complex engineering skills across India and South Asia in ever greater numbers.
Goals
eYantra with Ministry of Education now in its 3rd phase of funding and has impacted 250000+ students and 3250+ colleges across the Indian Subcontinent. In the upcoming phase starting in April 2026, eYantra plans to develop more initiatives to skill students on a large scale in Automation and AI.
Echoes of Experience
As India surges forward, the need for engineers who can think, build, and innovate at scale has never been greater. This vision drove us at IIT Bombay to create eYantra — a platform that goes beyond conventional education to train students in real-world problem solving through Project Based Learning, delivered in an innovative online competition format. Over 15 years, eYantra has empowered over 250,000 students, built 550+ labs, and sparked countless careers in industry, research, and entrepreneurship. Our journey has just begun — we now aspire to take this model global, to skill the next generation of innovators who will tackle the world’s grand challenges.
Initiatives
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