BAIF–SBI Foundation Youth for India Fellowship: A Journey of Youth, Innovation and Rural Transformation

“The future of India is shaped not only in cities, but in its villages—when youth choose to walk alongside communities”

India’s youth are its greatest demographic strength—curious, capable and deeply motivated to create meaningful change. At BAIF, this belief has found a powerful expression through a long-standing partnership with SBI Foundation’s flagship Youth for India (YFI) Fellowship Programme. Since the last 15 years, this collaboration has enabled young professionals from across the country to immerse themselves in rural and tribal India, co-creating solutions that are grounded, inclusive and sustainable.

A Partnership built on Shared Purpose

The association with the Youth for India Fellowship began in 2011 and has since grown into a deeply trusted and value-driven partnership. Across 13 fellowship batches, BAIF has hosted 100+ fellows, with placements in remote rural and tribal landscapes across Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand.

The partnership rests on a shared conviction: when youth are provided with the right ecosystem—mentorship, exposure and trust—they can become transformative agents of rural change. The one-year residential fellowship offers fellows not just a project, but a lived experience of village life—its realities, resilience and possibilities.

“Each fellow brings fresh questions, new ideas and renewed energy—challenging us to look at development through younger, sharper lenses”

Living the Village Reality

Youth for India fellows associated with BAIF, live within communities, learning local traditions, languages and aspirations while building relationships based on trust and mutual respect. This deep immersion enables them to move beyond surface-level interventions and respond meaningfully to grassroots needs.

Over the years, fellows have worked across themes such as rural livelihoods, education, health and nutrition, women’s empowerment, water security, renewable energy, climate-smart agriculture and social enterprise development. Their contributions have ranged from strengthening schools and adolescent health programmes to enabling SHGs, FPOs and rural youth to access skills, markets and government entitlements.

“Development becomes real when solutions are co-created—not delivered”

Many fellow-led ideas have gone on to inform and enrich BAIF’s own programme strategies, introducing contemporary tools, digital outreach, entrepreneurial thinking and innovative processes at the grassroots.

Fostering Innovation through “Sahyog”

A distinct feature of this partnership is the SBI-YFI Sahyog Fund—a catalytic support mechanism created by SBI Foundation that enables promising fellow-led initiatives to move from ideas to action. Sahyog supports pilots, prototypes, scaling and replication of interventions that demonstrate strong community relevance and sustainability potential. Several initiatives have evolved into women-led enterprises and community institutions—including millet-based food enterprises, bamboo and pine-needle crafts, nutrition gardens, adolescent wellness programmes, solar applications and tribal tourism with its focus on the mystic tribal culture.

“When youth innovation meets community wisdom, livelihoods take root”

Impact that extends beyond the Fellowship

The impact extends well beyond the one-year period. Many BAIF-hosted fellows have continued their engagement with rural development—establishing social enterprises, founding NGOs, strengthening producer collectives or pursuing careers anchored in grassroots realities.

For BAIF, the fellowship has also emerged as a powerful youth talent engagement platform, bringing in professionals from diverse academic and professional backgrounds. Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, fellows demonstrated extraordinary commitment—staying back in villages, supporting community surveys, awareness campaigns and field responses alongside BAIF teams.

“Resilience is learned in the field—and youth have shown it in abundance”

BAIF’s Commitment to Youth and the Future

Engaging with youth has always been central to BAIF’s development philosophy. Through the Youth for India Fellowship, BAIF reaffirms its commitment to nurturing young talent, fostering innovation and creating meaningful pathways for youth to contribute to nation-building.

BAIF invests deeply in mentoring fellows, integrating their ideas into programme frameworks and creating safe spaces for experimentation, learning and reflection. As the organisation advances its work on climate resilience, nature-positive livelihoods, agrobiodiversity and inclusive rural economies, inspired and capable youth remain integral to its vision.

“With every new batch of fellows, hope is renewed—for communities, for institutions, and for the future of rural India”

The BAIF–SBI Foundation Youth for India Fellowship partnership stands as a living testament to the power of youth-led, community-rooted development—where learning flows both ways, and impact grows with trust.