Modi to address world s largest hackathon

New Delhi March 31 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday will address the Smart India Hackathon said to be the world s largest hackathon.

Aimed at promoting innovation the exercise would see nearly 10 000 students producing digital solutions to 598 problems a release from the Ministry of Electronics and IT said.

The 598 problems have been identified and posted by 29 central government departments and include issues like geo-fencing of airports online toll collection smart traffic management cyber attacks and smart drones to make the airspace safer.

The 36-hour non-stop digital programming competition would start at 8 a.m. on Saturday in 26 different locations in the country with each location handled by one central department or ministry.

The top three teams would be awarded Rs 1 lakh Rs 75 000 and Rs 50 000 respectively and the digital solutions so awarded would be used by the ministry/departments for improving their governance systems if necessary with suitable upgradation.

All the prize winners would be connected to form a Community of Innovative Minds. The hackathon also aims at improving awareness about patents in the country.

According to World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) India registers 40 patents per million population.

--IANS
and/pgh/vt