PM Modi to interact with Smart India Hackathon participants on Wednesday

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will interact with young innovators at the grand finale of Smart India Hackathon - 2024 via videoconferencing on Wednesday, his office said.

The seventh Smart India Hackathon will run concurrently at 51 centres nationwide, a statement issued by the Prime Minister's Office said.

Modi will interact with the young innovators at the grand finale via videoconferencing around 4:30 pm on Wednesday.

More than 1,300 student teams will participate in the grand finale and the prime minister will also address the gathering.

The Software Edition will run nonstop for 36 hours while the Hardware Edition will run from Wednesday to Sunday.

Like past editions, the student teams will work on either the problem statements given by ministries, departments or industries or submit their own ideas in the Student Innovation Category against any of the 17 themes linked to sectors of national importance.

These sectors are -- healthcare, supply chain and logistics, smart technologies, heritage and culture, sustainability, education and skill development, water, agriculture and food, emerging technologies, and disaster management.

Some of the interesting problem statements of this year's edition include "Enhancing Images of Darker Regions on the Moon" presented by ISRO; "Developing a Real-time Ganga Water Quality Monitoring System using AI, Satellite Data, IoT, and Dynamic Models" presented by the Union Jal Shakti ministry, and "Developing a Smart Yoga Mat Integrated with AI" presented by the AYUSH ministry.

This year, more than 250 problem statements have been submitted by 54 ministries, departments, state governments, PSUs and industries.

A 150 per cent increase has been recorded in internal hackathons at the institute level, growing from more than 900 in the 2023 edition to around 2,247 this year, making this the largest edition so far.

More than 86,000 teams participated in this year's hackathon at the institute level and around 49,000 student teams (each consisting of six students and two mentors) have been recommended by these institutes for the national-level round, the statement said.