PM Modi to address Smart India Hackathon 2020 Grand Finale on August 1; 1 lakh for winner

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the grand finale of the largest ever online hackathon in the world on August 1, through video-conference, Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal said on Monday.

The Grand Finale of Smart India Hackathon 2020 (Software) will be held from August 1 to 3. The hackathon has been organised by MHRD’s All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), Persistent Systems and i4c.

Ramesh Pokhriyal also chaired a high-level meeting on Smart India Hackathon and discussed achievements of the previously conducted competition. Secretary, Higher Education, Amit Khare, Chairman AICTE, Anil Sahasrabudhe, Additional Secretary, MHRD, Rakesh Ranjan and Chief Innovation Officer, MHRD Abhay Jere were among the attendees.

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About Smart India Hackathon 2020

Due to COVID-19 pandemic, the grand finale is being organised online, and the participants across India will be connected over a specially-built advanced platform. Over 10,000 participants will compete for 36 hours to develop innovative digital solutions for some of the serious problems faced by the government departments and industry. 

This year, they will have to solve 243 problem statements from 37 central government departments, 17 state governments and 20 industries. Each Problem Statement carries prize money of Rs one lakh, except the student innovation theme which will have three winners, 1st, 2nd and 3rd with prize money of Rs 1 lakh, Rs 75,000 and Rs 50,000 respectively, an official release said.

Ramesh Pokhriyal said that Smart India Hackathon is a unique initiative to identify digital innovations for solving the challenges faced by our country. It is a non-stop digital product development competition, where problems are posed to technology students to suggest innovative solutions, the HRD Minister added.

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(Image credits: PTI)