Jakarta. Astra kicked off its flagship awarding program SATU Indonesia Awards on Monday, thus commencing its registration process.

This will mark the 15th edition of the awarding program that recognizes Indonesian young minds who have brought positive impact to the community by driving sustainability across five fields: health, education, environment, entrepreneurship, and technology. The number of people signing up to join the awards has been growing exponentially over the years.

“Fifteen years is not a short time. … We started out with just 120 applicants back in 2010. But SATU Indonesia Awards had almost 15,000 applicants last year,” Astra’s head of corporate communications Boy Kelana said at the kickoff ceremony in Jakarta.

“We believe that Indonesian youths must turn into future leaders. They should be able to inspire others with their work,” Boy said.

Registration will be open until August 4. Awardees will get a grant worth Rp 65 million (approximately $4,131) for their initiatives, as well as some mentoring. The following are the set of rules that applicants must pay attention to:

• Program initiated by individuals or groups.

• The initiator or the team leader must not be older than 35 years old. 

• Must be an original initiative. 

• The initiative must have been running for at least a year. 

• The said initiative must have never received any support from Astra Group before. 

• The initiative has never received any international or national awards. 

• The initiative aligns with the sustainability principles of environmental, social, and governance (ESG).

• The applicant is not an employee at ASTRA Group or SATU Indonesia Awards partners. 

• The applicant can sign up for themselves or other people in the SATU Indonesia Awards.

According to the program’s booklet, the public voting will take place starting from Oct. 16 to Oct. 22. Astra will hold the awarding ceremony on Oct. 29. Go to www.astra.co.id or www.satu-indonesia.com to find out more about SATU Indonesia Awards.