Gangtok: Sikkim Manipal Institute of Technology (SMIT), Sikkim Manipal University, is hosting the Smart India Hackathon (SIH) 2022 from August 25-26.
This is the world’s largest innovation model under the aegis of the Government of India and is being coordinated by the Ministry of Education.
It is a nationwide initiative to provide students with a platform to solve pressing problems of the government, organisations, and society at large. SIH aims to inculcate a culture of product innovation, problem-solving, and out-of-the-box thinking among students.
Smart India Hackathon was initiated in 2017 and is conducted at various nodal centres each year, where selected student teams, industry representatives, design mentors, and evaluators travel to the assigned physical centres to compete.
As many as 27 teams have arrived from Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Chandigarh and other parts of the country to participate in the grand finale. More than 180 participants are competing for solutions to six problem statements from two ministries — the Ministry of External Affairs and the Ministry of Law and Justice.
Each problem statement has a winning amount of Rs 1 lakh. Under the student innovation category, three prizes of Rs 1 lakh, Rs 75 thousand, and Rs 50 thousand will be awarded to the winning teams.
The inaugural ceremony was chaired by Guest of Honour Lt. Col Shankar Singh Gautam, Director, Ministry of External Affairs, Chief Guest BP Pradhan (IFS), Secretary, Department of Science and Technology, Government of Sikkim, Ajai Gautam, Director at the Ministry of External Affairs, Sadasiba Behera of the Ministry of Education’s Innovation Cell, and Prof GL Sharma, Director, SMIT among many others.
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