AICTE-LILAVATI AWARD

What is the AICTE-Lilavati Award?

The AICTE-Lilavati Award is an annual award instituted by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), a statutory body under the Ministry of Education, on the theme of women empowerment. According to AICTE, the award recognises the efforts of AICTE-approved technical institutions to treat women with equality and fairness in all spheres of life, and to run practical interventions that improve the lives of women and girls.

The award is named after Lilavati, the classical treatise on mathematics by Bhaskaracharya, and the name is used to signify the empowerment of women through knowledge. Rather than rewarding individuals, the award celebrates teams from technical institutions who have carried out concrete social interventions; projects on women's health, literacy, self-defence, entrepreneurship, technology or legal awareness, and demonstrated real impact in their community.

This is an institutional / team recognition award. It is not a scholarship, stipend or direct welfare benefit, and individual women cannot apply for a personal payment under it.

How much prize money does the AICTE-Lilavati Award give?

According to AICTE, the award gives cash prizes to winning teams:

• Winner: Rs 1,00,000
• First runner-up; Rs 75,000
• Second runner-up — Rs 50,000

These prizes are awarded per sub-theme, so several teams win across the different focus areas in a single cycle; AICTE has recognised as many as 24 winning teams in an award year. Winners also receive a certificate and public recognition at the award ceremony. Exact prize structures and the number of sub-themes can be revised between cycles, so confirm the current details in the year's nomination notice.

Who is eligible for the AICTE-Lilavati Award?

You can apply if:

• Your team belongs to an AICTE-approved technical institution or a deemed-to-be university.
• The team is made up of students, faculty, or both.
• The team size is up to five members, with at least two women members.
• The team has carried out a women-empowerment intervention in the last two years from the date the award is announced, under one of the notified sub-themes.

You cannot apply if:

• You are an individual seeking a personal cash benefit. This is a team award, not a scholarship or welfare payment.
• Your institution is not AICTE-approved.
• The team does not include the minimum number of women members or does not meet the team-composition rules.
• The intervention was not carried out within the qualifying two-year window.

What are the sub-themes?

The award is organised around several sub-themes of women empowerment. Based on AICTE's notifications, these have included women's health, literacy, self-defence, sanitation and hygiene, entrepreneurship, digital and technological literacy, and legal awareness. A team picks the sub-theme that fits its work and showcases the intervention and its measurable impact in that area.

What documents and details are required?

How to apply for the AICTE-Lilavati Award

1. When nominations open, go to the AICTE Lilavati Award portal (lilavati.aicte-india.org) and register your team.
2. Select a sub-theme, for example health, literacy, self-defence, entrepreneurship, technology or legal awareness, that matches your work.
3. Enter the institution and team details, ensuring the team has up to five members with at least two women.
4. Upload documentation of the women-empowerment intervention carried out in the last two years, with evidence of its impact.
5. Submit the entry before the closing date; AICTE evaluates the entries and announces winners per sub-theme.

Where to get help

The award is administered by the All India Council for Technical Education under the Ministry of Education. Nomination notices, sub-themes, prize details and the portal link are published on aicte-india.org and the dedicated Lilavati Award portal. Because the sub-themes, team rules and prize structure can change between cycles, confirm the current terms from AICTE's official nomination notice before entering.

How to check your application status

The AICTE-Lilavati Award is a one-time annual nomination cycle, not a running application with a long processing pipeline, so status tracking works differently from a welfare scheme:

1. Confirm submission first. After a team submits its entry on the AICTE Lilavati Award portal (lilavati.aicte-india.org), check for an on-screen confirmation or an acknowledgement email/receipt tied to the team's login. Keep a screenshot or PDF of this confirmation; it is the only proof of timely submission if a dispute arises later.
2. Log back into the portal with the same team credentials used at registration. Most AICTE award portals show a dashboard status such as "submitted," "under review" or "shortlisted" once evaluation begins, though the exact wording can vary between cycles.
3. Watch for evaluation-stage communication. AICTE typically contacts shortlisted teams directly, by email or phone, for any clarification, a presentation round, or additional evidence of the intervention's impact. Check the registered institutional email account regularly, including spam folders, during the evaluation window.
4. Check the results announcement. Winners, first runner-ups and second runner-ups per sub-theme are announced by AICTE, usually through a notification on aicte-india.org and at a formal award ceremony. There is no separate "track my application" number to call; the announcement itself is the status update for most teams.
5. If nothing is heard after the stated evaluation period, contact AICTE through the official channels on aicte-india.org rather than assuming rejection, since award-cycle timelines can shift from the originally notified schedule.

There is no SMS-based or helpline-based status-tracking system specific to this award; all updates flow through the nomination portal and the institution's registered email or contact details, so keeping those current at the time of submission matters.

Common reasons for rejection

Because this is a competitive team award rather than an entitlement scheme, entries are turned down both for eligibility failures and for weaknesses in the submission itself:

• Institution is not AICTE-approved. Entries from institutions that are not on AICTE's approved list, or from a university that is not a recognised deemed-to-be university, are disqualified outright. Fix: verify the institution's AICTE-approval status before nominating a team, not after.
• Team composition does not meet the rules. A team with more than five members, or with fewer than two women members, fails the basic eligibility bar. Fix: finalise the team roster against the "up to five members, at least two women" rule before registering, not while filling the form.
• Intervention falls outside the two-year window. Work completed well before the qualifying two-year period, or a project that is only planned and not yet carried out, does not count as a valid intervention. Fix: submit only work that has actually been implemented within the notified window, with dates that make this clear in the documentation.
• Weak or missing evidence of impact. A common reason strong-sounding projects still lose is that the entry describes the activity but does not document measurable outcomes, such as number of women reached, change in a health, literacy or safety indicator, or similar. Fix: attach concrete data, testimonials, photographs or reports that show impact, not just a description of what was done.
• Sub-theme mismatch. Choosing a sub-theme that does not genuinely match the intervention (for example, filing a general awareness activity under "entrepreneurship") can weaken evaluation scores even if the work itself is sound. Fix: pick the sub-theme that most accurately reflects the core focus of the project.
• Individual or personal-benefit applications. Entries framed as an individual seeking a personal award or cash payment are not valid, since this is strictly an institutional/team recognition award. Fix: only submit through an AICTE-approved institution's team, never as a personal application.
• Late or incomplete portal submission. Missing the notified closing date, or submitting an entry without the required institution details, team member details or intervention documentation, leads to automatic rejection. Fix: complete all sections of the online nomination well before the deadline and confirm submission is finalised, not left in a draft state.