Technology challenge

Union Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar has challenged students to offer innovative solutions to some of the daunting problems faced by our nation.

He told the students to use the “Smart India Hackathon 2017” to reach out to all technology institutions in India and challenge students to offer innovative solutions to some of the daunting problems faced by India.

Javadekar said the students will be required to solve the first set of 250 problem statements received from various ministries 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.

The Smart India Hackathon 2017 aims to find digital solutions to problems in the areas of power, education, health, water, finance, agriculture, energy, urban & rural development, aviation & shipping, transport, sanitation, sports, law & justice, skill development & entrepreneurship, defence, textiles, tourism, etc.

“India’s technology talent has made its mark on the world map and has produced innovative solutions for solving complex problems. For the first time, we are now harnessing this amazing human resource potential at such a massive scale to add velocity to India’s development,” said Javadekar.

“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,” he said.

Besides its potential to be the inflection point for impacting campaigns such as Digital India, Skill India, Make in India, Startup India and Standup India, the Smart India Hackathon can also set an example for the world on how youth power can help find digital solutions to legacy problems within a matter of hours.

‘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

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.

Twenty-five ministries and government departments are supporting the initiative. fii-news.com