New Delhi: Union HRD Minister Mr Prakash Javadekar today (09 Nov 2016) inaugurated the world’s largest digital national building initiative “Smart India Hackathon 2017”, the world’s largest nation building digital initiative. Through Smart India Hackathon 2017, HRD ministry is planning to reach out to all technology institutions in India, where students offer innovative solutions to some of the daunting problems faced by the nation.
Mr Javadekar unveiled the first set of 250 problem statements received from various ministries that the students will be required to solve during the Hackathon that will take place in early 2017. The Hackathon will have nearly 500 problem statements in all which will be published on innovate.mygov.in. Some of the ministries and departments participating in the Hackathon include Railways, External Affairs, Defence, Civil Aviation, Indian Space Research Organization, Department of Atomic Energy, etc.
The Minister said, “For the first time, the government of India is harnessing this amazing human resource potential at such a massive scale to add velocity to India’s development. Not only are we inviting India’s top IITs and NITs but also the technology institutes in the remotest parts of the country to participate in the Smart India Hackathon. I congratulate the 25 different ministries and government departments who have come together on this common platform and are actively supporting this initiative.”
All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), University Grants Commission (UGC), i4c, MyGov, NASSCOM, Rambhau Mhalgi Prabodhiniand Persistent Systems have joined hands to organize this mega ‘Smart India Hackathon 2017’ under the aegis of Ministry of Human Resource Development. Smart India Hackathon 2017 will harness creativity & technical expertise of over 30 lakh students from technology institutes in remotest parts of India, to spark several institute-level hackathons countrywide and help build a funnel for ‘Startup India, Standup India’ campaign.
AICTE and i4c in collaboration with other partners will reach out to 6500+ technology institutions and challenge students to think out-of-the-box. Students will stand to win cash prizes from each participating ministry, and also a chance to be part of the NASSCOM’s 10,000 Startups Program.
Dr. Anil Sahasrabudhe, Chairman, AICTE, said that AICTE is committed to take this novel approach to each and every tech institute in urban and rural parts of the country so we can tap into our demographic dividend to produce faster results for making India stronger.
Contest Details: The Smart India Hackathon 2017 is a pan-India 36-hour nonstop digital programming competition which will take place in more than 20 centres simultaneously. Each participating college can nominate up to three teams, each having six team members, which can belong to different courses or semesters within the same college. Each team will need to have at least one female team member, to encourage women coders. Each team will also have the option of choosing up to two mentors, who can be faculty, alumni or any other expert in their circles.
Each of the participating 25 ministries and government departments will give away prizes to top three teams, so 75 teams will stand a chance to win cash rewards as well as a chance to work with those ministries and departments for up to six months to execute their winning solution.
Prizes: For every ministry and department, the first prize will be of Rs.100,000, second prize of Rs.75,000 and third prize of Rs.50,000. Some of the ministries and departments participating in the Hackathon include Railways, External Affairs, Defence, Civil Aviation, Indian Space Research Organization, Department of Atomic Energy, etc.
NASSCOM President Mr R. Chandrashekhar and Persistent Systems , COO, Mr. Mrityunjay Singh also spoke on this occasion. For more details on the nation building Hackathon, interested candidates should visit: https://innovate.mygov.in/
