An aura of achievement pervaded the air where young engineering students racked their brain to meet a challenge. After all, they were the few short-listed ones among lakhs of aspirants and the task was monitored by none other than Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself.
These were 250 engineering students formed into 41 teams at ‘Smart India Hackathon’17’, held at CVR College of Engineering, finding solutions for challenges faced by government departments. The CVR College, a lone institution in Telangana hosting the programme of the Ministry of HRD, was one among the 26 nodal centres in the country where the competition is being held.
The event was inaugurated by Minister for Human Resource and Development, Prakash Javadekar, through a video conference while JNTUH Vice-Chancellor A. Venugopal Reddy encouraged them personally to showcase their skills in what could be termed the world’s biggest digital movement. “Students were excited about the tasks given to them and interestingly, 137 girls took part in the event along with their mentors,” said C.V. Raghava, chairman of CVR College. Other dignitaries present included B.V. Ram Kumar, Deputy Director, NIEPID (National Institute for Empowerment of Persons with Intellectual Disabilities); Bala Murugan, South Central Regional Officer, All India Council for Technical Education and Yogesh Deshpande, practice head, GS Lab.
These students would work 36 hours non-stop to build tools for 598 problems posed by 29 government departments. The digital solutions that would be created would be used to improve the functioning and governance. Winners would get cash prize and a chance to be a part of NASSCOM’s 10,000 start-ups’ programme.
