Second edition of Singapore India Hackathon to be held at IIT Madras

Second edition of Singapore India Hackathon will be held at Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) Madras from September 28 to 29, Ministry of Human Resource Development said on Thursday.

According to the ministry, the hackathon will be flagged off on Saturday in the presence of Minister of State for Human Resource Development (HRD) Sanjay Shamrao Dhotre.

This year the hackathon is focusing on three themes, 'Good Health and well-being', 'Quality Education' and 'Affordable and Clean Energy,' MHRD said in an official release.

"Singapore-India Hackathon is an initiative, based on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of actively promoting engagement and collaboration of best brains in India with the international world," read the release.

Further, the ministry said that the selected students from India and Singapore will work in collaboration to develop an innovative and out-of-the-box solution for some of the daunting problems faced by our societies.

Adding that 20 teams are participating in the hackathon, the ministry said that this is for the first time that the participating team would comprise of three students from India and three students from Singapore.

"The team with the most innovative solution will be presented with the prize money of USD 10,000, while the second, third and fourth winning teams will win USD 8,000, USD 6,000 and USD 4,000, respectively," the release added.

It added, "There will also be the 'Prize of Encouragement' for 6 more teams with USD 2,000 per team who will come up with solutions which have high potential on taking forward."

The Ministry also added that Prime Minister Modi would be giving away prizes to the winning teams on September 30.

Minister of Human Resource Development Ramesh Pokhiyal 'Nishankh' and the Minister of Education, Singapore, ONG Ye Kong will also attend the ceremony.

The event will be co-organised by MHRD, MHRD's Innovation Cell (MIC), All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) along with Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore and NTUitive Pte Ltd.