Over 300 engineering students join Modi's pet mission 'hackathon'

The Hackathon, the name derived from marathon, will be a pan-India programme where the participating teams from different institutions will be taking part in a video conference with the Prime Minister from across six centres in the country, AICTE Vice-Chairman MP Poonia told a press meet here. 

The centres from where the video-conferencing will take place are Pune, Allahabad, Coimbatore, Ahmedabad, Nagpur besides Kolkata. The participants at the Hackathon here will provide digital solutions to health sector woes to the government during the 40-minute video interaction with the Prime Minister from 11 pm on Saturday, he said.

"In Bengal Guru Nanak Institute of Technology, near Kolkata, has been chosen as the only nodal centre for the event," Poonia said. Along with the video-conferencing with Prime Minister, the AICTE has arranged a pan-India 36-hour non-stop digital programming competition across 33 locations in the country. 

The 33 locations include the six centres from where students will have the chance to interact with Modi. The hackathon is aimed at offering digital sustainable out-of-the-box solutions to solve real time challenges faced by the nation, he said adding, "Through Smart India hackathon we hope to create world's biggest innovation model." Poonia said an estimated 40 lakh students enroll for technical education in the country every year, which is 24.5 per cent of the country's total population against 87 per cent in the United States of America.

"This gross disparity needs to be addressed" and AICTE will help towards spotting talents that can be used for betterment of society. About 30 government departments/ministries are involved as partners in the exercise, directly engaging with students. 

"The Hackathon will enable us to discuss rural health sector problems in the country, including the possibility of death of stroke patients due to logistical problems and how it can be solved digitally," an IIT-Kharagpur PG student said at the Kolkata. 

A girl student from Goa University, working at the centre said, "I will point out the low figure of girls in the mechanical engineering stream and also the need of proper sanitation facilities for girls in rural areas.