Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi addressed the Grand Finale of Smart India Hackathon 2022 via video conferencing, today.

The Prime Minister interacted with the participants. SIX_PIXELS from Kerala was asked by the Prime Minister about their project of translation of text in ancient temples into devanagari. The all girl team described the findings, benefits  and process of the project. They said that their work is in response to the Prime Minister’s call from Red Fort.

Actuators team of Tamil Nadu were given a challenge regarding persons with disability. They worked on the problem of bow leg or knock kneed people. Their actuator ‘Prerak’ helps such people. The Prime Minister stressed the need to be self reliant in the field of medical devices.

Master Viraj Vishwanath Marathe Winner of SIH Junior, from Gujarat has prepared a mobile game application called HCam for people suffering from dementia after realising that dementia is a global health issue. It involves the discussion of previous events and props such as photographs and videos. The app consists of art therapy, games, music and videos which will help in cognitive improvement of dementia patients while providing an outlet for self expression. In response to the Prime Minister’s query about being in touch with a Yoga institute, Viraj said that he has been in contact with Yoga instructors who have suggested a few asanas for old age.

Animesh Mishra of DataClan from BIT Mesra Ranchi described the use of deep learning in predicting cyclones. They work on satellite images from INSAT. Their work can help in better prediction of various aspects of cyclones. The Prime Minister asked about the availability of data for the project. In response, Animesh said that they have considered the cyclones that have hit the Indian coastline after 2014 and the accuracy is close to 89 per cent. He further added that even though the data that has been collected so far is low, but with their technical ability, they have strived to attain maximum accuracy and output.

Priyansh Diwan of Team Sarvagya from West Bengal informed the Prime Minister about his team's work of enabling the transfer of multimedia data securely on radio set through radio waves without Internet. He said that with this system in place, the privacy issues can be completely addressed as the app is made indigenously and the servers are also situated in India. When the Prime Minister asked Priyansh if the system can be deployed by the army on border areas, Priyansh said the transmission is encrypted which allows it to be used in areas where the threat of signal interception prevails. The Prime Minister also asked Priyansh if  the team is working towards transmission of video files via this system. Priyansh said that since the transmission medium remains the same, it is possible to transmit videos and the team is working towards transmitting videos in tomorrow’s hackathon

Nitesh Pandey from team IDEAL-BITS Assam told the Prime Minister their app for grassroots innovators for filing IPR applications. The app will use AI and other technologies for simplifying the process of filing patent applications. In response to the Prime Minister’s query about how the app will help innovators, Nitish said that the application educates the innovators about patents and how it can be approached. The app provides an end to end solution for innovators who are willing to file a patent. It also helps the innovator by letting them get in touch with various agents related to the field who can help them resolve their issues.

Anshit Bansal of Team Iris of Uttar Pradesh described their problem of creating crime hotspot creation and mapping. Unsupervised machine learning algorithms are being deployed to map the crime cluster. The Prime Minister asked about flexibility and scalability of the model. The Prime Minister also enquired if the drug menace can be tackled with this model. In response, Anshit said that the model is scalable as it is not dependent on geographical location as it functions based on the criminal data set that is provided to the model.

Master Harmanjot Singh, Winner of SIH Junior from Punjab showed his project of a smart glove that monitors health parameters. The Smart Glove works on the model of Internet of Medical Things and it helps in monitoring the health vitals like mental health, heart rate,blood pressure, oxygen saturation level, mood detection, tremors in the hand and body temperature. The Prime Minister praised his parents for all their support. 

Bhagyashree Sanpala of Samidha from Punjab talked about their problem statement about real time fuel monitoring of ships through machine learning and satellite technology. Samidha aims to achieve an unmanned maritime monitoring system. The Prime Minister asked Bhagyashree if the system can be applied to other areas as well. Bhagyashree said that it is possible.

Addressing the occasion, the Prime Minister said that SIH has become an important way of public participation. He said that he is full of confidence for the young generation. “The country is working on big resolutions about how our country will be after 100 years of independence. You are the innovators who are the flag bearers of the slogan of 'Jai Anusandhan' for the fulfillment of these resolutions”, he said. Shri Modi underlined the shared trajectory of the success of the young innovators and success of the country in the next 25 years. “Your innovative mindset will take India to the top in next 25 years”, he added.

Once again, referring to his Independence Day proclamation about the aspirational society, the Prime Minister said that this aspirational society will work as a driving force in the coming 25 years. Aspirations, dreams and challenges of this society will bring forth many opportunities for the innovators.

The Prime Minister said that In the last 7-8 years, the country is progressing rapidly through one revolution after another. “Infrastructure revolution is happening in India today. The Health Sector Revolution is happening in India today. Digital revolution is happening in India today. Technology revolution is happening in India today. Talent Revolution is happening in India today”, Shri Modi Pointed out. Today the focus is on making every sector modern, he said.

The Prime Minister said that everyday new areas and challenges are seeking innovative solutions. He told the innovators to find solutions for the agriculture related issues. He asked the young innovators to take full advantage of the  initiatives like optical fiber in every village and launch of 5G, preparation for 6G by the decade end, and promotion of the gaming ecosystem. He said that Indian innovations always provide the most competitive, affordable, sustainable, secured and at scale solutions. That is why the world is looking towards India with hope.

The Prime Minister emphasised that to increase the culture of innovation in India, we have to pay constant attention to two things - Social support and institutional support. The Prime Minister highlighted that the acceptance of innovation as a profession has increased in the society and in such a situation, we have to accept new ideas and original thinking. “Research and innovation must be transformed from the way of working to the way of living”, the Prime Minister said.

The Prime Minister said that in the National Education Policy there is a roadmap for creating a strong foundation for innovation. Atal Tinkering labs and i-create are promoting innovation at every level.  The Prime Minister remarked that today's India of the 21st century is moving ahead with full confidence in its youth. He highlighted that as a result of this, India's ranking in innovation index has increased today. The number of patents has increased 7 times in the last 8 years. The unicorn count has also crossed 100, the Prime Minister added.

The Prime Minister said that today’s young generations are coming forward with fast and smart solutions to the problem. Thinking behind such hackathons is that the young generation should provide the solutions of the problems and this collaborative spirit between the youth, government and the private organizations is a great example of ‘Sabka Prayas’, he said.

Background

It has been the constant endeavour of the Prime Minister to promote a spirit of innovation in the country, especially among the youth. With this vision in mind, Smart India Hackathon (SIH) was started in the year 2017. SIH is a nationwide initiative to provide students a platform to solve the pressing problems of society, organizations, and government. It aims to inculcate the culture of product innovation, problem-solving and out-of-the-box thinking among students.

The growing popularity of SIH can be gauged from the fact that the number of teams registered for SIH has seen a four-fold growth from around 7500 in the first edition to about 29,600 in the ongoing fifth edition. This year more than 15,000 students and mentors are travelling to the 75 nodal centres to take part in the SIH 2022 grand finale. Students from over 2900 schools and 2200 Higher Education Institutions will tackle 476 problem statements from across 53 Union Ministries in the finale, including Optical Character Recognition (OCR) of Temple inscriptions and translations in Devanagari Scripts, IoT-enabled risk monitoring system in Cold Supply Chain for perishable food items, High-resolution 3D model of terrain, infrastructure and roads conditions in disaster struck areas, etc.

This year, Smart India Hackathon - Junior has also been introduced as a pilot for school students to build a culture of innovation and develop problem-solving attitude at the school level.

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DS/AK/TS