The Vicharanashala internship is a two-month engagement at IIT Ropar. We work on real, open-source software for India-centric problems — agriculture (Annam.AI), education (ViBe), and a steady stream of other research-driven projects. This page describes the programme; the FAQ answers the operational questions.
The internship is self-paced / parallel: no mandatory live sessions, no fixed hours-per-day — you work through four verticals asynchronously, against mandatory weekly milestones we email you. It's not open-ended: the flexibility is in when within the week you work, not whether you hit the milestone.
The programme
Every selected candidate sees a yellow VINS result panel when they log in to samagama.in. That panel contains the next steps, including confirming your start date.
VINS — Self-paced / parallel
Vicharanashala Internship. Open to every candidate who performed well in the AI interview. Conducted entirely online; you work from your own location, against weekly milestones rather than a live schedule.
Start anytime in 2026. Two-month duration with a one-month grace period. Everything must finish by 31 December 2026.
No stipend. The programme itself is free for you — we charge nothing.
The four verticals
Your dashboard is organised around four verticals, worked through asynchronously. All four must be completed to earn your completion certificate. Each (except Projects) carries a weekly milestone — the bare minimum you need to hit every week to stay active in the internship. The flexibility is in when within the week you engage, not whether you meet it; falling behind puts you at risk of being excused from the programme:
| Vertical | What it is | Weekly milestone (bare minimum) |
|---|---|---|
| 🗣️ Standup | Accumulate 3,600 cumulative minutes total. Poll correctness is measured and counted, not just participation. | At least 1 hour of fully engaged presence per week (2% progress/week) — not just logged in, but actively present and responding. |
| 🤝 ViBe | Complete all courses on ViBe to 100%: the Internship Onboarding course, the AI course, and the MERN course. | Watch at least 1 hour of course video per week (2% progress/week). |
| 📚 SPA (Foundations of Data Science / Matrix Mystics) | A peer-endorsement system covering 53 questions across Linear Algebra modules. You start with 100 SPA points; get endorsed by a peer mentor on a question to complete it, and once you're endorsed yourself you can mentor others. | 2 activities per week. Falling behind pauses SPA activity for 15 days and delays your certificate. |
| 💻 Projects | Ship at least one non-trivial contribution to the open-source project across your entire internship. | No weekly milestone — a one-time requirement, not a recurring one. |
These weekly milestones are also emailed to you directly when you start, but they're the floor, not the target — the faster you clear them, the faster you climb through the four verticals and finish the internship. For example, Standup's 3,600-minute total is just 60 one-hour sessions: attend daily and you could wrap that vertical in about 2 months. See the FAQ, §2.7 for the full breakdown.
What we expect
This is a serious internship, not a summer job. Weekly milestones (emailed to you) are mandatory checkpoints — this isn't a work-whenever-you-feel-like-it track. What's flexible is when within the week you engage and how you structure your hours; what's fixed is the milestone itself. The most common reason interns drop out mid-way is competing commitments — exams, other internships, job hunts, travel. If your time is fragmented, please don't take this up. Wait for a window where you can give it real attention.
Certification follows completing your four verticals — check your dashboard for up-to-date progress. The bar is high deliberately — the certificate means something because it's earned, not distributed.
Project, technology, domain
We do not pre-declare the problem you'll work on. The approach is problem-centred: based on your inclination and background, your mentor assigns a real lab problem, and you work backwards — learn the technology you need, then solve the problem.
You may end up working on AI/ML, NLP, LLMs, web development, systems, agriculture-tech (Annam.AI), educational tech (ViBe), open-source infrastructure, or any other area depending on what fits. Insisting on a specific stack or domain after joining is not viewed favourably — students are expected to do the research required to work at a particular lab before applying.
Why the interview is on samagama.in
Every candidate goes through a structured AI-led interview at samagama.in with our interviewer agent, Yaksha. This is not a gimmick. The interview gives every applicant — irrespective of college brand, network, or geography — the same calibrated conversation about their work. Prof. Iyengar reads every transcript personally and forms his own view.
If you have not yet completed the interview, please go to samagama.in, sign up, and engage in the chat seriously. The interview is the only formal assessment in this cycle. We do not use a separate test, coding round, or shortlist call.
Logistics in brief
- Result panel. Visible on samagama.in for one week after the result is declared. View it; opt in to VINS; complete the NOC step within this window.
- NOC. A No-Objection Certificate from your institution, signed and stamped by an authorised signatory (HOD, Acting HOD, Principal, Dean, or equivalent). We provide a printable NOC format — download it from the dashboard. Digital signatures are not accepted; we need a scanned copy of an original physical signature on the format we provide, with the institutional rubber stamp / seal applied in the designated area and the signatory's email filled in the designated field so we can cross-check.
- Offer letter. Issued automatically — immediately as a provisional offer if you submit a self-declaration, or on validation if you upload your NOC first. You may formally begin the internship only after your official NOC is uploaded and validated by us.
- During the internship. Discord for community, GitHub for code, Yaksha chat for one-on-one queries.
Cost
The internship is free. We charge nothing — for the course, for mentorship, for any part of the programme. Vicharanashala is funded by initiatives, schemes, and funding agencies that cover the cost involved. Because someone else is paying for your participation, we keep the rigour high.
It is the duty of the lab to upskill and give every student in the country an opportunity that the student deserves. Stellar performers may receive a selected stipend; we hope you reach that stage.
What to do next
- Go to samagama.in and sign in.
- Read your result panel carefully. It tells you the track and the next step.
- Tell Yaksha you want to opt in to VINS, in the exact phrase shown on the panel.
- Download the NOC, get it signed and stamped, and upload it back via the Upload NOC button on the panel.
- Wait for your offer letter, then begin on your confirmed start date — your dashboard shows the four verticals and that week's milestones.
If you have a question this page doesn't answer, the FAQ covers most of it. If neither covers your case, log in at samagama.in and ask Yaksha — that is the only support channel we operate.
For your specific case, log in at samagama.in and ask Yaksha.