PM Narendra Modi to address grand finale of Smart India Hackathon on August 1

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the grand finale of Smart India Hackathon on Saturday via video conferencing.

According to a statement, the hackathon is a nationwide initiative to provide students with a platform to solve some of the pressing problems people face in daily lives, and thus inculcate a culture of product innovation and a mindset of problem-solving, it said.

"It has proved to be extremely successful in promoting out-of-the-box thinking in young minds," the statement said.

On Friday, Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal `Nishank` had declared that the grand finale of the Smart India Hackathon 2020 (Software) will be held from 1 to 3 August.

Nishank said, "Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the grand finale of the largest ever online hackathon in the world, from 7 pm onwards on August 1, 2020, through video-conference."

The first edition of Smart India Hackathon in 2017 saw the participation of as many as 42,000 students which increased to 1 lakh in 2018 and to 2 lakh in 2019. The first round of Smart India Hackathon 2020 saw participation of more than 4.5 lakh students.

"The grand finale of the software edition this year is being organized online by connecting all the participants throughout the nation over a specially-built advanced platform. More than 10,000 students will be competing to solve 243 problem statements from 37 central government departments, 17 state governments and 20 industries," the statement said. 

The ministry said that owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, the finale of the hackathon will be conducted online.