Union Minister for Human Resource Development Prakash Javadekar today launched in JECRC University, Jaipur, the world’s largest event of its kind- third edition of the two day grand finale of Smart India Hackathon 2019 (Software Edition) being held at 48 nodal centers across the country simultaneously.
Thirty two teams from across the country are participating in IIT Kharagpur, a Nodal Centre of SIH-2019, under the themes of “Agriculture and Rural Development, Smart Travel and Education”.
Addressing all participating students across the country through video conferencing, Mr Javadekar said that more than 2 lakh students from various colleges are participating in this third edition of the Smart India Hackathon 2019, which is a record.
He said over 11,000 participants at 48 different centres will work on their final innovations for the next 36 hours. These students will codify their innovations in a group of six, on which they are working hard since last 4 months.
Mr Javadekar announced that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the students participating in the Smart India Hackathon 2019 this evening.
The minister said that lakhs of Indian engineers are working across the world. ‘ But we are working as contributors and not as owners.’
He urged the students to become owner of innovation to lead the world. He also urged to practice innovation from early school life.
He said that this is an open innovation challenge and students will also derive satisfaction for solving the real problems of the people and country by their innovations.
Mr Javadekar further said that SIH-2019 comprises of two competitions – Software Hackathon and Hardware Hackathon. The final round of Hardware Hackathon competition will be conducted in the month of June 2019.
R. Subrahmanyam, Secretary (Higher Education), of Ministry of Human Resource Development also addressed the participating students.
He said all the students connected with this event, physically or digitally, are the future of this county. He said that the event has generated so much enthusiasm in the students that participation has increased more than double.
Professor Partha Pratin Chakrabarti, Director, IIT Kharagpur and Co-Chairman, Organising Committee SIH-2019 and Professor Shailendra Kr Varsheny along with other dignitaries were present at IIT here.
