Smart India Hackathon 2020 Highlights: PM Modi hail students with innovative ideas

New Delhi, Aug 01: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday addressed the grand finale of the Smart India Hackathon, a nation-wide competition held by All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE). This year, over 4.5 lakh entries were received for the competition.

Addressing the gathering, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that it was challenging to conduct the Hackathon in a time when the nation is suffering from the novel coronavirus.

"Holding this competition in these circumstances was the first challenge which you have solved. The challenges which you have been working on, I am curious to know about them," PM Modi said.

He also said that Artificial Intelligence can be a huge facilitator, to make the country's facilities, effective, interactive and people-friendly.

"With the help of satellite, a rainfall prediction model will be prepared," said a finalist. Reacting to this, the Prime Minister lauded the step and said that it will be of great help to the farmers.

The Prime Minister also said the government is providing sanitary napkin at Rs 1 each. "With the introduction of reusable sanitary napkin will be of great help to the girls. I congratulate you for being so thoughtful," PM Modi said to a student working towards reusable and bio-degradable sanitary napkin.

PM Modi heard one of the teams from Shri Krishna College of Engineering about a solution for embankment breaches. He said the team should also develop a training module that would help to insitutionalise this solution.

The Smart India Hackathon began at 9 am when the HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal inaugurated it. In the hackathon, candidates were to create solutions for real-world problems. The competition will take place virtually this year. It had started in 2017 and this is its fourth edition.