Winners of the Indian Innovation Icons 2025 were announced at a dazzling grand finale on March 6, 2025, celebrating the spirit of Indian innovation.
The 10th edition of MIF’s flagship awards platform concluded this week, unveiling the Indian Innovation Icons 2025 winners. The programme, designed to discover and celebrate currently hidden, potentially game-changing Indian innovations, culminated in a grand ceremony on March 6th that showcased the remarkable intersection of ambition and ingenuity across the country.
In a fierce competition that drew a record-breaking 1,170 applications, seven trailblazers emerged victorious following an eight month-long rigorous evaluation process by a distinguished and independent jury with support from our Knowledge Partner, Deloitte India. Their innovations weren’t simply about technological supremacy; they were about both pioneering new possibilities and reimagining solutions across sectors—from space exploration to financial systems—positioning India at the forefront of global innovation.
“Innovation is the life force of any progressive nation – even more so of a country like India which is on the journey of being Viksit Bharat before it turns 100-years-old. This force has been gathering serious momentum every year over the past decade, as evident through the massive 63% jump in Indian Innovation applications for the awards this year. We received an overwhelming 1,170 applications, with both business and social categories growing at around the same rate.”
-Amit Chandra, Honorary Chairperson, Governing Council of MIF, during the Indian Innovation Icons 2025 showcase
The following four innovations won the Indian Innovation Icons (previously ‘Innovation for India’) awards in the business category, outshining 929 other applicants:
In the social category, the following innovations emerged winners for their outstanding impact on societal challenges, from among 241 contenders.
In a distinct category, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) was honoured with the Global Gamechanger recognition. Unlike the other categories, this prestigious distinction is conferred directly by the Governing Council of MIF, based on recommendations from the ecosystem and the Knowledge Partner. NPCI earned this recognition for revolutionising India’s financial ecosystem by building Unified Payments Interface (UPI), RuPay, Immediate Payment Service, and other disruptive technologies enabling seamless, secure digital payments at scale. This drives financial inclusion for millions of unbanked individuals, with UPI accounting for over 80% of India’s digital transactions and making mobile-based banking a reality for 350 million users.
“The solutions we have witnessed today reflect the creativity and diversity of services and products emerging from India. I am sure the winning innovators will scale to newer heights just as many of our past winners have. For example, Dozee – 2023 Business category winner, has helped save over 16,000 lives and 14 crore in nursing hours.”
-Harsh Mariwala, Founder, Marico Innovation Foundation, during the Indian Innovation Icons 2025 showcase
The awards ceremony itself gathered industry leaders, social innovators, academics, and policy-makers – an ecosystem increasingly recognising that India’s most pressing challenges require collaborative intelligence.
The true measure of the winning innovations will be their ability to bridge critical gaps in access, sustainability, and inclusion – transforming not just isolated problems but the larger systems in which they exist. That journey continues long after the awards night concludes, and MIF will continue supporting these visionaries through enhanced visibility, leadership development, and access to valuable networks to help scale their impact across India and beyond.
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