Manipal, 21 July, 2020.

Manipal Institute of Technology part of Manipal Academy of Higher education (MAHE) will organize the Smart India Hackathon 2020, a nationwide initiative centrally managed by Ministry of Human Resource Development’s Innovation Cell and All India Council for Technical Education. MIT has been selected as one of the nodal centres that will facilitate the event.

Smart India Hackathon is a nationwide initiative to provide students a platform to solve some of the pressing problems we face in our daily lives, and thus inculcate a culture of product innovation and a mindset of problem solving. Smart India Hackathon is conducted every year since 2017 in two formats i.e. SIH Software and SIH Hardware Editions. Student participants, industry representatives and mentors, who congregated at various assigned nodal centres, attend the event

This year however, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has caused restriction in movements and mass gatherings, the SIH Software Edition is being conducted in ONLINE mode. Student participants, SIH coordinators and industry evaluators are coming together on a digital platform designed to facilitate the implementation of the event seamlessly.

A total of 23 teams having 138 participants are competing against 6 problem statements from 3 Companies/Organizations. Manipal Institute of Technology is hosting problem statements given by BEML Limited, Bharat Electronics Limited, NCR Corporation (India) Private Limited. Each Problem statement has a winning amount of Rs. 1 lakh.This year SIH team and experts from Participating Ministries/Companies/ Organizations will centrally monitor the performance of each student innovator during hackathon and will decide on funding their Innovation and on offering them an opportunity of internship or job at their organization.

The program will be centrally inaugurated from New Delhi by Minister for HRD and Hon’ble Minister of State for HRD. The Hon’ble Prime Minister will also interact with the students on August 1, 2020.