Hundreds of students got together to engineer tech solutions for the nation’s progress at the Smart India Hackathon 2018 held at the nodal centre, SP Mandali’s WeSchool, in Mumbai. Day one of the Smart India Hackathon 2018 saw groups of students, accompanied by mentors, brace for the 36-hour non-stop challenge.
Student groups began work to invent executable software solutions for problem statements presented by Ministry of Commerce and Industry and the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution at SP Mandali;s Prin LN Welingkar Institute of Management Development and Research (WeSchool), nodal centre for the Smart India Hackathon 2018, Mumbai.
Prakash Javadekar, Union Minister for Human Resource Development, officially opened the Smart India Hackathon 2018by video-conference, along with dignitaries from the All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), eminent government officials and corporate chiefs from across India.
Present at the inaugural on WeSchool campus were Dr Amit Dutta, WRO, AICTE; Prashant Gulalkari, Vice President, Strategic Development, Persistent Systems Limited; Dr Pratham, Varshney, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Ministry of Commerce and Industry; Prakash Nevatia, Deputy Secretary, Department of Commerce and Rakesh Kumar, Executive Director, Food Corporation of India, and others from the government teams.
Prof Uday Salunkhe, Group Director, WeSchool, said: “The Smart India Hackathon 2018 unifies the younger generation to learn the power of ‘We’ because challenges are solved by teams. The platform enables students to push the boundaries of creativity, facilitating collaboration, exchange of ideas and rapid development of software solutions in the 36-hour marathon time. The Smart India Hackathon 2018 is a good beginning for students in enhancing their individual capacity and, in turn, strengthening the nation’s economic growth.”