At Hackathon, PM to address over 10K engineering students

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address through video conferencing over 10,000 students at 'Smart India Hackathon' aspiring to be young innovators.

The hackathon, a first-of-its kind initiative by the HRD Ministry at such a large scale is intended at promote innovation, out-of-the-box thinking among young minds especially the engineering students. According to HRD Ministry officials, the PM will address the innovators on Saturday at 10 pm through video conferencing.

"The grand finale of Smart India Hackathon will start at 8 AM tomorrow and would end at 8 PM on April 2 at 26 different locations in the country with each location handheld by one department or Ministry," an official statement said.

"For the preparations of the finale, online trainings were given to students by approximately 2110 mentors appointed for the purpose. During the finale, the selected groups will be locked-in for 36 hours continuously and complete digital solutions for the problem statements through programming to create computer software or a mobile app," it added.

The software created will be evaluated by judges drawn from the respective ministry and industry experts and the best solutions will be awarded with cash prizes of Rs 1 lakh, Rs 75,000 and Rs 50,000 for the top three teams respectively.

The awarded software will also be used by the concerned ministry or department for improving their governance systems, if necessary, with suitable upgrade. "All the prize winners would be connected to form a Community of Innovative Minds," the statement said.