Build for Bharat Fellowship 2026

NOTE: Applications will be accepted only through the Google Form available on our website. Please visit www.bharatdigital.io/fellowship to learn more and submit your application.


After last year’s successful program, we are back with the second round of the Build for Bharat Fellowship program. The program is a unique opportunity for top engineering and design students to work at the intersection of technology and public service. This 6-month (Jan-June 2026), fully immersive fellowship places talented students in government departments to solve high-impact challenges leveraging technology to improve governance, public service delivery, and social impact at scale. Last year, we had 25,000 applications and selected 19 fellows for this prestigious opportunity. 

What the Fellowship Offers:

• Real-World Problem-Solving: Work on mission-critical tech projects that directly impact millions of people.
• Public Technologist Training: Specially curated orientation program to shape you into the next generation of public technologists that are not only highly skilled technologists but also understand the realities of public service, the ecosystem, policy, and the unique challenges of implementing tech solutions responsibly within complex social frameworks.
• Expert Mentorship: Engage with leading technologists from top tech firms, academia, and the public sector. All the selected fellows will get one-on-one office hours with mentors throughout the summer to hone their skills. 

Mentors from our last cohort included:

• Kailash Nadh, CTO, Zerodha
• Rukmini S, Founder, Data for India & Author of Whole Numbers and Half Truths
• Ujaval Gandhi, Founder, Spatial Thoughts and Ex-Google India, part of the team that launched Google Maps for India
• Shashank Srikant, PhD, MIT CSAIL
• Amit Ranjan, Founder Slideshare, Architect DigiLocker
• Devanshi Sihare, Head of Social Impact, Tinker Labs
• Stipend: Rs 40,000 per month for 6 months (Jan-June 2026).
• Cohort Experience: The selected fellows will be part of a community of India’s top design and engineering talent interested in public good. 

Some projects from our last cohort include:

• Redesigning the MoSPI mobile app to make official statistics accessible
• Annual Passes on the National Highways mobile app
• Connecting citizens to opportunity by improving welfare discovery in Tamil Nadu
• Strengthening Karnataka's attendance system with user-focused tech
• GIS + AI/ML based analytics to help reduce incident response times
• Improving the quality and systems of Panchayat meetings in Karnataka

Projects for the 2026 cohort will be announced in due time, and fellows will be matched to projects based on skill sets after selection.

Eligibility: 

The application is open for students (Bachelors/masters/PhD) graduating in 2026 or early career professionals having graduated in 2024 or 2025. It is an on-site fellowship, and students will be required to primarily spend their time in our partner government department’s office through their last semester.