New Delhi: Ministry of Human Resource Development has announced that the much awaited Smart India Hackathon 2017 Grand Finale is scheduled to be held on April 1 & 2, 2017 simultaneously at 26 different nodal centers across India. ICMR is a ‘Premier Partner’ in this initiative. Launched on Nov 9, 2016 in New Delhi, 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 extends/ give opportunity to citizens to provide innovative solutions to India’s daunting problems.
Here is a quick snapshot of details pertaining to ICMR department:
| Problem Statements proposed | Ideas received | Shortlisted
Teams for Grand Finale |
No. of Youngsters Competing in Grand Finale | Nodal Center for Grand Finale | |
| ICMR, MoHFW | 28 | 238 | 37 | 296 | Kolkata, West Bengal |
| Overall Event | 598 | 7531 | 1266 | 10000+ |
Dr SoumyaSwaminathan, Secretary, DHR & DG, ICMR said this was a wonderful experiment to tap young minds to solve the country’s problem.
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 sensitize students about Smart India Hackathon 2017. These workshops helped connect students to the problems of our nation. Out of the 7531 idea submissions received for the 598 problems posted by 29 govt. departments, 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 for training 30,000+ students.
About Smart India Hackathon 2017
All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) under the aegis of Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) and in collaboration with i4c, My Gov, Persistent Systems, NASSCOM and RambhauMhalgiPabodini 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.
