Fadnavis Launches Governance Challenge 2026, Asks Students To Help Shape Maharashtra’s Innovation Push

Mumbai: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Monday launched the 2026 edition of The Governance Challenge (TGC), asking students from top business and public policy schools to pitch ideas for building up the state’s innovation ecosystem.

Fadnavis made the announcement on X, framing it as a chance for young people to shape where the state is headed. “Inviting bright young minds from India’s leading business schools and public policy institutions to develop bold, implementable solutions that can strengthen Maharashtra’s innovation ecosystem and transform the state into a leading innovation hub,” he wrote.

TGC bills itself as India’s first governance-focused case competition, and this year draws in students from 36 business and policy schools across the country. The format hasn’t changed much since it started: teams work through real governance problems and pitch solutions that could genuinely be used by the state.

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This is the fourth time the competition has run, organised by Samagra in partnership with the Maharashtra government. The question participants have to answer this year is a big one what should Maharashtra actually do to become an innovation hub by 2035.

Separately, Fadnavis was in Nagpur on Sunday to inaugurate an AI Centre of Competency at Ramdeobaba University. Speaking there, he said companies today need workers who can actually operate in a tech-heavy economy, not just adapt to it after the fact. He also had praise for the university itself, calling it one of the country’s stronger institutions and predicting it would grow into a serious hub for research and innovation in the years ahead.