Fund My Crazy 2026 by Google Gemini — ₹1 Crore Prize for Indian Students — Frequently Asked Questions

Any student enrolled full-time at an accredited Indian college or university during the submission window, from any discipline — engineering and design backgrounds are not required. You must also be 18 or older as of 30 July 2026 and a legal resident of India. Google can ask for your student ID or enrolment certificate, and you get 5 working days to provide it.

Submissions close on 15 September 2026 at 11:59 PM IST, having opened on 15 August 2026. There is no mention of an extension, and once you submit you cannot edit your entry.

No. There is no entry fee. The only cost on your side is the time it takes to develop the idea and produce your Gemini image.

Ten winners divide ₹1 crore. The top 3 take ₹20,00,000 to ₹25,00,000 each, the next 4 take ₹7,00,000 to ₹10,00,000 each, and the last 3 take ₹3,00,000 to ₹5,00,000 each. Within each tier the judges set the final figure, based on how ambitious and how viable the idea is.

Yes. Roughly 30% TDS applies to winnings above ₹10,000, so a ₹10,00,000 prize would see about ₹3,00,000 deducted, leaving around ₹7,00,000. A Form 16A is issued and the income is yours to report and settle further tax on.

After you complete KYC — PAN card, bank account details, cancelled cheque, ID proof and address proof — and sign a prize acceptance agreement. The transfer is made within 120 working days of that documentation being finished.

Neither. Your submission is a Gemini-made visual plus written answers explaining the idea. No code, no build, no prototype — the quality of the concept is what gets scored.

Either works. A team may have up to 3 members, and they can come from different Indian colleges as long as each is enrolled. One person is designated the primary contact, represents the team at the finale, and receives the entire prize to distribute — so agree the split before you apply. Team members cannot be added or swapped after the deadline.

No. Only one submission is allowed per person or per team, and it cannot be edited afterwards. Read everything over carefully before you submit.

Yes to both. The visual has to be made with Google Gemini, and the form asks for evidence of Gemini use — your conversation history and screenshots of your prompts. Using ChatGPT, Midjourney, DALL·E or any other tool leads to immediate disqualification. "Built with Gemini" is worth 20% of your score and one of the four questions asks specifically how Gemini is integrated into your solution, so use it for brainstorming and design as well as the final image. Screenshot your prompts as you go rather than trying to recreate them later.

Your name, email, phone number with country code, and your college with city. Then the element you are reimagining, chosen from a dropdown — Roads and Transportation, Our Education, Our Healthcare, Our Community and Living, Our Markets, or Surprise Element. Then four mandatory questions: why this element and why now (the form warns against being general), what your reimagined city looks like and how it works, how Gemini is built into the solution and which prompts you used, and why it matters to people in the future. Finally one image in JPG or PNG under 10 MB. There are no word limits on the live form, and everything must be in English.

No equity and no assignment of your intellectual property — ownership stays with you. What you do grant is a worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual and irrevocable non-exclusive licence allowing Google to display, reproduce and adapt your submission for campaign promotion, and to use your name, likeness and college in marketing. That licence outlives the campaign, so read Sections 6 and 11 of the terms if publicity is a concern.

Political, religious, unlawful, hateful or discriminatory content; plagiarism, or an idea already submitted to another contest or previously published; violence, sexual content or defamation; promotion of alcohol, tobacco or drugs; and false or misleading claims. Disqualification can happen at any point, even after winners are named, and there is no appeal. Note that an idea with a neutral surface but a political or religious agenda behind it is still out — you can tackle a social problem, just not frame it in those terms. Criticising your own college is permitted; targeting a community, caste or region is not.

Vision carries the most weight at 30%, followed by real-life relevance at 20% and built with Gemini at 20%. Future focus is 15% and execution is 15%. Legal and policy compliance is assessed separately as a pass/fail gate applied before any scoring.

You are notified by email and must confirm within 24 hours. Google covers round-trip economy air or train travel, hotel accommodation, local transport and meals for the finale, whose city and date have not been announced. Finalists attend mentorship sessions and may be asked to pitch live to the judges. Confirmed finalists are also featured in media coverage across Google's channels, and the travel benefit cannot be exchanged for cash.

Fund My Crazy 2026 is a Google Gemini initiative from Google India Private Limited, administered by Communique Marketing Solutions Pvt. Ltd. Applications go through the form at enter.fundmycrazy.com, which runs to about ten questions and takes roughly 30 minutes if your idea and image are ready. Campaign queries can be sent to hello@fundmycrazy.com. Draft your answers outside the form and paste them in, since you cannot edit anything after submitting.

No. DPIIT (Startup India) recognition is not listed as a mandatory requirement for Fund My Crazy 2026 by Google Gemini — ₹1 Crore Prize for Indian Students, though having it can strengthen your application and unlock other benefits.

Fund My Crazy 2026 by Google Gemini — ₹1 Crore Prize for Indian Students is open to startups at any stage. It is open to startups registered anywhere in India.

Applications go through 8 stages, starting with Submissions open. Apply through the official application link on this page.