Why innovation-thirsty India needs initiatives like Smart India Hackathon ?
How a youngster would feel as the Union Minster for Human Resource Development reaches out to them and passionately asks them for their work, their journey from the entry to the Hackathon among 1 lakh students to being part of Grand Finale of Smart India Hackathon 2018! How they may feel when Secretary, Ministry of HRD, Government of India, Vice Chairman, AICTE and 115 CEOs and Digital Leaders do the same in a short span of 36 hours! Words such as happy and motivated may fall short to share the feeling!
Or maybe it is like a dream come true!
Yes, it was a dream come true for me too, to meet Young Engineers from across the Country at Smart India Hackathon 2018. Smart India Hackathon truly Inspired a spirit of Innovation in India.
Hon’ble Minister for HRD, Mr Prakash Javadekar, Inaugurated the Grand Finale of the world’s biggest Smart India Hackathon 2018 at New Delhi Institute of Management (NDIM). This year, the Hackathon was held at 28 locations in India. Hon’ble Minister shared that more than 1 lakh students from more than 1200 colleges participated in this second edition of the Hackathon and 8000 finalists were working at finding digital solutions to problem statements of 27 Ministries and 17 State Governments.
While the work of young engineers may result in big innovation revolution and serve the society in many walks of life, the obvious question comes to mind, what happened to last year’s Hackathon? The good news is that 27 innovations made by students in the last year’s Hackathon are at the final stage! Hope more solutions will come live this year too!
What was exciting to see was the presence of 115 Senior Professionals at Delhi Centre of Smart India Hackathon. We were delighted to see that Smart India Hackathon has attracted many senior professionals who voluntarily invested time and shared their invaluable insights with the participants. Certainly, the team of Mr R Subramanyam, Secretary, HRD Ministry has put a lot of efforts to reach out to youngsters and coordinate with different stakeholders. Certainly not an easy job in a vast, democratic and diverse country like India!
A practical view was being considered by the Ministry of HRD to give credits for Hackathon participants. In association with the National HRD Network (NHRDN), Chairman NDIM Dr V M Bansal agreed to explore offering internship to interested Hackathon participants. It was our delight to share with the Hon’ble HRD Minister that we would like to connect the hackathon finalists with the corporate. After all, Smart India Hackathon is a hub of Talent! And who would like to miss to meet talent in today’s World!