In a move that is expected to give a boost to the innovation ecosystem and find solutions to the problems being faced by the government, students across 26 locations in the country will work on 598 problems identified by 29 ministries and come out with their respective digital solutions to them within 36 hours.

The ‘non-stop’ two-day exercise by young brains is slated to begin on 1 April. It is being held as part of the ‘Grand Finale of Smart India Hackathon-2017’, organised by ministry of Development of North Eastern Region at Girijananda Chowdhury Institute of Management & Technology (GIMT), Guwahati, Assam, along with All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) under the ministry of Human Resource Development.

More than 10,000 participants across 26 nodal centres across the country will work non-stop for 36 hours to come up with their unique products or solutions for the problems identified by different ministries and departments spread across 26 countrywide locations.

The winner of the competition will get a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh, runners up Rs 75,000 and second runners up Rs 50,000. The three will also get an opportunity to be part of the NASSCOM’s ‘10 thousand Startsups’ programme, a Ministry of Earth Sciences press note said here.

Ahead of the final event of the Smart India Hackathon- 2017, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh, said: “Digital Solutions along with appropriate technologies have the potential to catalyse development solutions in the North East States”.

Smart India Hackathon-2017 kicked off in the national capital New Delhi on 9 November 2016. The aim of the initiative was ‘to harnesses creativity and expertise of students, builds funnel for ‘Startup India, Standup India’ campaign, crowd sources solutions for improving governance and quality of life’ of common people of the country, Secretary Ministry of Earth Sciences Dr M Rajeevan said.

The Hackathon Grand Finale will be held in Chennai. Earlier AICTE had arranged 26 awareness workshops across India to sensitise students about Smart India Hackathon 2017. The idea behind these workshops was to help students understand the problems of the nation.