'Research & Innovation Should Be Made Way Of Living': PM Modi At Smart India Hackathon

PM Modi said India is taking quick steps by keeping its confidence in the young population and noticed that its innovation index ranking has gone up.

PM Modi attends the National Labour Conference of labour ministers of all states & UTs through a video conference (Source: PTI)

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday addressed the Grand Finale of Smart India Hackathon 2022 via video conferencing and said research and innovation have to be made a "way of living" with increasing acceptance for it in society, as reported by the news agency PTI. Modi said social and institutional help will support the development and groundbreaking thoughts and original thinking should be respected. Modi said India is taking quick steps by keeping its confidence in the young population and noticed that its innovation index ranking has gone up.

The quantity of patents over the most recent eight years has gone up by multiple times and the count of unicorns has gone past 100, he said.

Smart India Hackathon has turned into a superb illustration of public investment, and the young innovators are the flag-bearers of the "Jai Anusandhan" call made by him on Independence Day, he said.

SIH, which began in 2017, is a cross-country drive to give students a stage to tackle the pressing issues of society, associations, and government. It means to instill the culture of product innovation, critical thinking, and out-of-the-box thinking among students.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been interacting with the student participants of the Smart India Hackathon every year since its inception and he is expected to interact with the students even this year at 8 pm on August 25," Union Minister of State for Education Subhas Sarkar said at a press conference.

More than 15,000 students and mentors travelled to the 75 nodal centres to take part in the SIH 2022 grand finale.

"The scope of the Smart India Hackathon has been widening with every passing year, since its launch in 2017. The increased enthusiasm among participating students and problem statement providing organisations could be seen in their growing participation over the years. Every year, SIH is impacting lakhs of students and provides them with a national platform to test their educational learning for solving real-world challenges," Sarkar said.

(With PTI Inputs)