Ahmedabad: Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Department of Space (DOS), today started the much awaited Smart India Hackathon-2017 Grand Finale of Ahmedabad Nodal Centre at Gujarat University Convention Hall, Ahmedabad. Gujarat Technological University (GTU) and Gujarat University are hosting the mega event.
All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) under the aegis of Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) and in collaboration with i4c, MyGov, Persistent Systems, NASSCOM and Rambhau Mhalgi Pabodini is conducting a unique initiative ‘Smart India Hackathon 2017’. For the first time ever, 29 different government ministries and departments came together and posed 598 problem statements to 30 lakh technical students from India. During the 36-hour Grand Finale scheduled to be held on April 1 & 2, 2017, teams of thousands of technology students will build innovative digital solutions for problems posed by different central govt. ministries/ departments. Smart India Hackathon 2017 would be the first massive scale hackathon initiative in India; unprecedented in the nation’s history. Winners stand to get cash prizes and a chance to be part of the NASSCOM’s 10,000 Startups program.
In his message, ISRO Chairman & Secretary, DOS, Shri A.S.Kirankumar said that “There has been a significant rise in the use of cyber technologies in various space mission support functions within ISRO/DOS, which has posed new challenges to ISRO’s IT and space assets security apart from the usual dealing with highly confidential and sensitive data related to space missions. Thus, deterrent measures against cyberattacks as well as enforcing data security measures to create proactive security monitoring capability are vital for ISRO. With this objective in mind, ISRO/DOS has chosen Information and cyber security as a focus for this Smart India Hackathon-2017 to get novel ideas from India’s Young and Ignited minds to resolve specific issues in their own novel and innovative ways.”
Smart India Hackathon 2017 is expected to become the ‘world’s biggest open innovation model’ that other countries can replicate. Since Hackathon as a concept is new to India, AICTE arranged 26 awareness workshops across India to sensitized students about Smart India Hackathon 2017. These workshops helped connect students with problems of our nation. Out of the 7531 idea submissions received for the 598 problems posted by 29 govt. department, 1266 ideas have been shortlisted for the ‘Grand Finale’ on April 1 & 2, 2017, during which these teams will work nonstop for 36 hours to build products based on their ideas across 26 locations in India. For the first time, 10,000+ youngsters (6 students & 2 mentors per team) will work non-stop for 36 hours to develop products for our nation. To ensure the success of Smart India Hackathon 2017, multiple online training sessions have been organized in hope of training 30,000+ students.
Smart India Hackathon 2017 harnesses creativity & expertise of students, builds funnel for ‘Startup India, Standup India’ campaign, crowd-sources solutions for improving governance and quality of life, and provides opportunity to citizens to provide innovative solutions to India’s daunting problems.
Comments