In a bit of encouragement and support for the junior entrepreneurs, eight rural high school students from Odisha will take part in the Global Junicorn and AI Summit 2025 on May 29-30 at Texas State University, USA. The students will present their startup ideas to people from across the world. It includes a helium balloon satellite for agriculture, decentralized ethanol production in villages, and an AI-powered spice blending system at the summit, TOI reports. 

Helium Balloon Satellite 

Digbijay Sahu and Chiranjib Barik of Govt High School, Soro, in Balasore district, came up with a helium balloon satellite for agriculture. "Traditional satellite imaging is expensive and lacks precision. The helium balloon satellite captures high-resolution, real-time images of farmland, detects soil health, crop stress, and water level, and sends actionable insights directly to farmers' mobile phones," Anil Pradhan, founder of Young Tinker Foundation, which is mentoring the eight, told ET. 

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Rural Volt for Ethanol Production 

‘Rural Volt—Decentralized Ethanol Production in Villages' will be presented by Koushik Kar of Govt High School, Soro, and Sridhar Jena of Govt High School, Berhampur. "Rural communities often rely on expensive and polluting fuels while agricultural waste goes unused. Transportation costs for fuel further burden village economies. To solve this, Rural Volt can establish small-scale ethanol production units directly in villages, enabling farmers to convert crop waste into clean, renewable fuel," Pradhan added. 

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Masala GPT 

‘Masala GPT—AI-Powered Spice Blending System' will be presented by P. Aditya and Soumya Sourav Gouda of the Govt. High School, Berhampur. The system is an AI-driven dispenser that creates over 500 regional spice blends from just 10 base ingredients.