Smart India Hackathon 2024: The Smart India Hackathon 2024, designed to unite the nation’s brightest young talent in solving real-world problems presented by major government ministries, is scheduled to take place from December 11 to 15. This is the seventh edition of the Smart India Hackathon, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will preside over this on Wednesday. More than 54,000 entries were received, and out of that, 1,300 teams (comprising over 10,800 participants) were selected to compete in figuring out the answers to 254 problem statements. Notably, most of the entries came from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.
The event is scheduled to take place at Galgotias University in Greater Noida, where the university has established 15 specialised committees comprising 105 faculty members and 300 student volunteers to oversee the preparations.
What Is Smart India Hackathon 2024 All About?
The Smart India Hackathon (SIH) is a nationwide initiative aimed at nurturing innovation and encouraging students to solve real-world challenges. It offers participants a platform to address critical problems submitted by various Ministries, Departments, and Industries or to present their original ideas under the Student Innovation Category, spanning 17 key themes.
For SIH 2024, over 250 problem statements have been submitted by 54 Ministries, Departments, State Governments, PSUs, and Industries, showcasing a significant increase in participation. Internal hackathons at the institute level have seen remarkable growth, surging by 150 per cent from 900+ in 2023 to over 2,247 in 2024. This year's edition is the largest yet, with over 86,000 teams competing at the institute level, 49,000 advancing to the national round, and more than 1,300 teams making it to the grand finale.
A number of teams are all-girls. Women are actively taking part not only in software teams but also in hardware teams. In fact, many teams are being led by women too, aligning with the essence of women empowerment and progress.
The solutions found in this Smart India Hackathon will be used by organisations as solutions to existing problems. One of the solutions presented in this Hackathon earlier was used by the Ministry of Social Justice to make companions for dyslexic children. Following last year’s Hackathon, approximately 23 projects received funding of ₹10 lakh each. Several initiatives with broader applications were further supported, with some even evolving into startups.