Smart India Hackathon 2017 organized at Guru Nanak Dev University

Amritsar,  January 4 (Punjab Post Bureau) – Awareness Workshop on Smart India Hackathon was organized in the Guru Nanak Bhawan Auditorium of the Guru Nanak Dev University, here today.   A large number of students and teachers were participated.

          This programme was oraganized by All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), under the aegis of Ministry of Human Resource Development, Govt. of India in association with Inter Institutional Inclusive Innovation Center (i4c), and Persistent Systems. The objective of ‘Smart India Hackathon 2017 is to identify new and disruptive digital solutions for solving the challenges faced by our country as per the vision of Hon’ble Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi.  Prof. Rajneesh Arora, former Vice Chancellor, IK Gujral Punjab Technical University, Jalandhar was the guest of honor. Dr. R. S. Rathore, Director & Regional Officer. All India Council For Technical Education, North Western Regional Office, Chandigarh welcomed the chief guest and others. Dr. Abhay Jere, Organizing Secretary, Smart India Hackathon-2017 introduced the audience about Smart India Hackathon. Dr. K. S Kahlon, Dean Student Welfare and Coordinator presented vote of thanks.

         Prof. Arora said that Hon’ble Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, envisages the ‘Digital India’ initiative to bridge the digital divide in our country and further promote digital literacy in order to make development a comprehensive mass movement and put governance within everyone’s reach. He also believes that, to ensure development youth should be involved in large numbers as they are capable of offering new, innovative solutions for some of the daunting problems faced by our nation e.g. water management, sanitation, affordable healthcare, sustainable environment, etc.

          Dr. Rathore said that Hackathon is a 36 hrs non-stop digital programming competition during which student teams compete simultaneously at 25 different centers across India to offer innovative digital solutions for any given problem. Our Smart India Hackathon 2017 will be the biggest Hackathon initiative in the world. Shri. Prakash Javadekar, Hon’ble Minister for HRD is the Chief Patron who has officially launched this initiative on 9^th November 2016. Prof. Anil Sahasrabudhe, Hon’ble Chairman, AICTE is chairing the Organizing Committee. Another USP of Smart India Hackathon initiative is that about 500 problem statements have already come directly from different Government departments and ministries based on their requirements.