Smart India Hackathon conducted by the Ministry of Human Resource Development’s Innovation Cell annually has gone online this year due to COVID-19 and Hubballi’s KLE Technological University (KLETU) has been chosen as the nodal centre.
Smart India Hackathon is a nationwide initiative to provide students a platform to solve pressing problems people face in their daily lives, and thus, inculcate a culture of product innovation and a mindset of problem-solving. Smart India Hackathon is being conducted every year since 2017 in two formats, i.e., SIH Software and SIH Hardware Editions.
Earlier, SIH was conducted at various nodal centres, where student participants, industry representatives and mentors used to congregate physically to provide a solution on select problems. But considering the pandemic situation, SIH is being conducted online this year.
According to a release issued by KLETU, student participants, SIH coordinators and industry evaluators will come together on a digital platform designed to facilitate the implementation of the event seamlessly, managed centrally by the Ministry’s Innovation Cell and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).
KLE Technological University will facilitate the SIH software edition operations and support to participants.
This year, five teams with 30 participants will be in competition for one problem statement from two Ministries and 19 teams having 114 participants will be in competition for four problem statements from one Ministry. KLETU is hosting the problem statements given by the Department of Information Technology and Bio Technology, Karnataka, and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
Prize money
Under this year’s SIH, the winner of each problem statement will take home a cash prize of ₹ 1 lakh.
Inauguration
The inauguration of SIH will be on August 1 from New Delhi by the Union Minister for HRD and the Minister of State for HRD. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be interacting with the participants at 7 p.m. on August 1.
As this is the software edition, SIH teams and experts would centrally monitor the performance of each student innovator to decide on funding innovation and on offering him internship opportunities.
For more details, contact Professor Satyadhyan Chickerur of KLETU on Ph: 9632601460, or email: chickerursr@kletech.ac.in.
