The story so far
Yuva Sangam is the Ministry of Education's youth-exchange programme under Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat: young people from one state or UT are taken on a funded exposure tour of a paired one, run through a nodal higher-education institution and administered by AICTE. JammuBeat covered Phase VII when it opened, with an 18 August deadline.
What's changed
The deadline has moved. The official EBSB portal now carries a last date of registration of 31 August 2026 — which leaves three days from today.
The portal also notes that the number of registrations received is already well beyond the number of participants that can be accommodated, and that the nodal higher-education institution makes the final selection. Registering is not the same as going.
The details, confirmed on the portal
- Who can apply: Indian citizens aged 18 to 30 — students, NSS and NYKS volunteers, and employed or self-employed people. You do not have to be enrolled in a college, which is the part most people get wrong.
- Where J&K goes: J&K and Ladakh are paired with Maharashtra. The nodal institution on this side is NIT Srinagar; the partner institution in Maharashtra is IIT Bombay.
- Length: exposure tours of 5 to 8 days.
- Cost: selected candidates pay a ₹1,500 caution deposit online to confirm their place. It is refundable — the portal says it is returned to the candidate's bank account before the trip ends, except for selected candidates who then do not participate.
- What the tour covers: the five pillars — Paryatan (tourism), Parampara (traditions), Pragati (development), Paraspar Sampark (people-to-people connect) and Prodyogiki (technology).
- Fitness: you must be medically fit to travel by train and bus.
What to do
Register at ebsb.aicte-india.org before 31 August. Given that applications already outnumber places, treat the caution deposit and the selection call as things that come later — the only step that is in your hands this week is getting the registration in.
