RAIPUR,CG,BHARAT: Amity University Chhattisgarh Raipur will host the two-day 7th edition of the Smart India Hackathon (SIH) (Software) which will concurrently begin on December 11th, 2024 at 51 centres across the country, said Amity University Vice Chancellor Professor (Dr) Piyush Kant Pandey. It will conclude on December 12.

Addressing the media, he said Union Minister for Education, Dharmendra Pradhan, will virtually inaugurate the event centrally.

At institute level T.N. Singh, Dy. Director General & State Informatics Officer at National Informatics Centre, Chhattisgarh will be chief guest and Prof. Samir Bajpai, Professor National Institute of Technology, Raipur - Guest of Honour.

At Amity University Chhattisgarh a total of 31 teams, comprising 186 participants (103 males and 83 females), guided by 28 mentors, from thirteen states mainly Delhi, UP, Pondicherry, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, West Bengal, Rajasthan are set to participate. The event will be further enriched by the presence of 17 esteemed jury members, comprising experts from both industry and academia, who will evaluate the participants' performances. The participants will work on five innovative software problem statements, challenging participants to devise creative and practical solutions using their technical expertise and teamwork, Professor Pandey said.

Professor said the expected solutions  from the Grand Finale of the SIH 2024 at Amity University, Raipur Nodal Centre as outcome to problem statements are (i) Clean & Green Technology, (ii) Smart Education, (iii)  Disaster Management, (iv) Heritage & Culture, and (v) Fitness & Sports.

For SIH 2024, more than 250 problem statements have been submitted by 54 Ministries, Departments, State Governments, PSUs, and Industries. This year, an impressive 240% increase has been recorded in internal hackathons at the institute level, growing from over 900 in SIH 2023 to over 2247 in SIH 2024, making this the largest edition so far. More than 86,000 teams have participated in SIH 2024 at the institute level and around 49,000 student teams (each consisting of 6 students and 2 mentors) have been recommended by these institutes for the national level round.

The challenges identified and addressed cover 17 major areas/themes linked to sectors of national importance and national priorities. These are Healthcare, Supply chain & Logistics, Smart Technologies, Heritage and Culture, Sustainability, Education and Skill Development, Water, Agriculture and Food, Emerging Technologies, and Disaster Management.

Till date, SIH Alumni have established over 100 Startups, many of which have strong social dimensions.