Executive Summary
India's securities market is growing rapidly, but financial literacy and cyber safety awareness are not keeping pace. Despite increasing investor participation, especially from Tier II and smaller cities, many students, first-time investors, and senior citizens lack the knowledge and confidence needed for informed and secure investing. Cyber fraud and limited awareness of safe investing practices further impact investor trust.
The CDSL Reimagine Ideathon 2027 invites participants to design innovative and practical solutions that improve financial awareness and cyber safety for students, first-time investors, and senior citizens. Solutions may take any form, such as mobile apps, websites, chatbots, games, AI assistants, learning platforms, or awareness campaigns
This will happen over the course of three rounds:
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Screening Round:
Submit a PDF with clear sections on the Idea, Challenges, Risks & Assumptions and Business Impact. Refer to Entry Submission Form on the website https://ideathon.cdslindia.com
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Round 1:
Present your idea in a 20-minute PowerPoint presentation to the Jury over Video Conference.
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Round 2:
Finalists (final round) will be invited to present their idea to the Jury in-person, in Mumbai. A working prototype / demonstration will be preferred, however, not mandatory.
Remember
The objective is to create scalable and impactful solutions that transform awareness into action, strengthen investor confidence, improve cyber-safe behaviour, and enable more Indians to participate responsibly in the securities market.
Ideas will be evaluated on Innovation, Functionality, Behavioural Impact, Feasibility, Accessibility & Inclusion, Data Protection & Privacy, and Presentation Clarity.
Please refer to the FAQs on the website https://ideathon.cdslindia.com
Background
India's securities market presents a significant opportunity to translate growing participation into meaningful investor empowerment. Out of India's estimated 33.72 crore households, only an estimated 3.21 crore, or approximately 9.5%, have invested in securities market products, despite 63% of households being aware of at least one such product.
CDSL data further highlights both the scale of participation and the gaps that remain in achieving broader investor inclusion. While 80% of demat accounts originate from Tier II and beyond cities, only approximately 20% belong to women. As of June 30, 2026, CDSL services over 18.59 crore demat accounts, with assets under custody amounting to Rs. 88.2 lakh crore. However, most households continue to prioritize capital preservation over returns, with nearly 80% of households and 79% of Gen Z households exhibiting risk-averse behaviour.
Financial literacy indicators further highlight this challenge. The National Centre for Financial Education's (NCFE) Financial Literacy and Inclusion Survey found that individuals in the 18-29 age group scored lower on measures of financial literacy and financial attitude compared with older cohorts. These findings highlight a significant knowledge and awareness gap among students, young professionals, and first-time investors, underscoring the need for targeted investor education initiatives to build the skills, confidence, and understanding required for informed financial decision-making.
These trends give rise to three interconnected key challenges:
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Financial education is not keeping pace with rapid investor growth:
Investor participation is expanding, particularly across Tier II and beyond cities, but financial education has not reached investors at the same scale. This gap is particularly relevant for students, first-time investors, and senior citizens, who may benefit from simple, accessible, and relatable learning formats. Despite the growing need for investor education, participation in SEBI's Investor Education Programs remains below 1%. This is despite 91% of past participants rating these programs as highly useful, highlighting a significant gap between the need for investor education and its reach.
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Cyber fraud is a growing threat to investors:
As investment activities increasingly take place through digital platforms, investors must be able to identify and avoid cyber fraud. It can disproportionately affect individuals who may be less familiar with digital risk signals, particularly students, first-time investors, and senior citizens.
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Limited awareness of safe investing and cybersecurity practices can erode investor trust:
Limited awareness of safe investing practices and cybersecurity precautions can reduce confidence in the securities market. When individuals do not know how to assess risks, identify misleading claims, protect their credentials, or distinguish legitimate platforms from fraudulent ones, they may either make unsafe decisions or avoid participation altogether. Trust-related concerns were cited by 51% of non-investors as a key barrier to market participation, pointing to a meaningful awareness and trust gap that education efforts need to close.
Part A: Your Challenge (Problem Statement):
The second edition of CDSL's Ideathon invites participants to develop an innovative solution that improves financial awareness and cyber safety among students, first-time investors, and senior citizens.
Participants are free to choose the format, technology, delivery model, or approach best suited to their proposed solution. For example, the solution may be designed as a digital platform, mobile application, website, chatbot, game, simulation, learning module, awareness campaign, community model, AI-enabled assistant, or any other suitable format. However, the solution must address the fixed audience groups of students, first-time investors, and senior citizens.
Proposed ideas should reflect one or more of the core values mentioned below. These values are directly linked to the key challenges identified above.
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Empowerment: Enable individuals to make informed and independent financial decisions through improved knowledge, awareness, and understanding.
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Trust: Strengthen confidence in the securities market through simplicity, transparency, responsible participation, and credible information.
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Safety: Promote secure digital behavior and help individuals identify, avoid, and respond appropriately to cyber fraud, scams, phishing attempts, impersonation, credential theft, and other investor-focused cyber threats.
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Inclusion: Ensure that financial education and cyber safety resources are accessible across languages, abilities, locations, age groups, and different levels of financial and digital literacy.
The proposed solution must demonstrate one or more of the following aspects:
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Improve financial education, promote cyber-safe behaviour, or meaningfully integrate both.
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Be relevant and accessible to students, first-time investors, and senior citizens.
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Simplify complex concepts and enable informed decision-making.
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Promote responsible participation in the securities market.
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Help users identify, avoid, and respond to cyber fraud and scams.
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Build investor confidence through clarity, transparency, and credible information.
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Be practical, scalable, and capable of creating measurable impact.
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Incorporate appropriate privacy, security, and ethical considerations.
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Be inclusive across languages, abilities, locations, and varying levels of financial and digital literacy.
Proposed solutions must not provide investment advice, enable trading or transaction execution, promote specific financial products or securities, encourage speculative or unsafe behaviour, collect or misuse sensitive personal information, weaken cybersecurity safeguards, or facilitate any illegal, unethical, misleading, deceptive, or manipulative activity.
Part B: Evaluation
All submissions will be evaluated by a multidisciplinary jury, which will assess ideas based on the following dimensions:
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Dimension
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Criteria
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Description
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Innovation
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Innovation
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Originality and novelty of the proposed solution.
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Functionality
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User Experience (UX) &
User Interface (UI)
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Quality of design, usability, clarity, ease of navigation, and user engagement.
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Behavioral Insight
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Impact & Usefulness
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Practical value, relevance, and ability to influence positive user behavior among students, first-time investors, and senior citizens.
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Feasibility
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Idea Feasibility
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How effectively the solution addresses the problem and whether it can realistically be developed and implemented.
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Viability & Scalability
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Potential for adoption, long-term sustainability, and ability to scale to large and diverse audiences.
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Accessibility & Inclusion
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Accessibility
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Extent to which the solution accommodates diverse users, including different languages, abilities, age groups, and levels of financial and digital literacy.
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Data Protection & Privacy
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Data Protection
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Soundness of the solution's approach to privacy, security, consent, and responsible data handling.
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Presentation
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Clarity of Presentation
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Ability to communicate ideas, user value, implementation approach, and impact effectively.
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The jury will prioritize ideas or technology-backed solutions that are innovative and actionable, aspirational and ethical, and capable of driving measurable change.
Ideas that comprehensively address both the aspects of the problem statement and provide end-to-end solutions will be eligible for additional credits.
Additional consideration will be given to ideas that demonstrate original, unconventional, and forward-looking thinking.
Also remember to keep your proposed solutions easy to use.
Expected Outcomes
Winning ideas should contribute to:
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Greater financial awareness and literacy
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Informed and responsible market participation
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Improved cyber safety awareness and practices
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Broader participation across diverse investor groups
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Stronger trust in India's securities market
Part C: Deliverables and Stages
Screening Phase
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Objective: Submit a concise and compelling overview of your idea in the prescribed format. Please refer to the Entry Submission Form on the website https://ideathon.cdslindia.com. https://ideathon.cdslindia.com.
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Screening will be conducted based on the key parameters outlined in Part B - Evaluation. The decision of the jury will be final.
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Format: Maximum 3 pages, PDF format (prepared in any document editor such as MS Word, Open Office, etc.)
Disclaimer:
Use of AI tools is permitted solely as a supporting aid to refine, analyze, or enhance your submission. The core concept, problem statement, and proposed solution must originate from the participant(s). By submitting an entry, you confirm that your idea reflects substantial original human thought and contribution and is not predominantly or entirely generated by AI. The organizers reserve the right to disqualify submissions that do not meet this requirement.
Round 1: Jury Presentation
Please Note: Shortlisted teams will be notified through their registered email IDs.
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Objective: Shortlisted teams will present their ideas through video conferencing.
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Format:
Teams will present their ideas to the jury through a 20-minute PowerPoint presentation conducted over video conference.
Participants are encouraged to use creative and effective formats to showcase their ideas to the jury.
Round 2: Final Demonstration
Please Note: Finalists will be notified through their registered email IDs.
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Objective: Finalists will demonstrate the functionality and practical application of their ideas.
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Deliverable: Finalists will deliver an in-person presentation before the jury in Mumbai. A working or demonstrable prototype, such as an app, website, chatbot, dashboard, or any other suitable format that effectively demonstrates the idea, is preferred but not mandatory.
For relevant queries, please refer to the FAQs available on the website https://ideathon.cdslindia.com. For questions not addressed in the FAQs, please contact us at [email protected].
