PM Modi interacts with students during fourth edition of Smart India Hackathon

New Delhi, Aug 1

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday interacted with the students through video conferencing at the Grand Finale of the Smart India Hackathon.

“You all are working on great solutions. This platform not only provide solutions to the challenges that the country is facing but also strengthens India’s aspiration in the field of data, digitisation and hi-tech future,” said PM Modi.

In India, ecosystem is being developed at a fast pace for innovation, research, design, development and entrepreneurship, he added.

“Through Smart India Hackathon a lot of innovations have happened in the last few years. After this edition of Hackathon, I am hopeful that the youngsters will continue working on providing new solutions,” said PM Modi.

The Smart India Hackathon is a nationwide initiative to provide students with a platform to solve some of the pressing problems of our daily lives, and thus inculcate a culture of product innovation and a mindset of problem-solving. It has proved to be extremely successful in promoting out-of-the-box thinking in young minds

The first edition of Smart India Hackathon in 2017 saw participation of 42000 students which increased to 1 lakh in 2018 and to 2 lakh in 2019.

The first round of Smart India Hackathon 2020 saw participation of more than 4.5 lakh students. The Grand Finale of the software edition this year is being organized online by connecting all the participants throughout the country together over a specially-built advanced platform.

More than 10,000 students will be competing to solve 243 problem statements from 37 central government departments, 17 state governments and 20 industries.

On the new Education Policy 2020, Prime Minister Modi said, “The policy aims at making job creators instead of job seekers”. The objective of this policy is to bring reforms in mindset of people”.