With India stepping into the digital era with 108 crore people owning mobiles and 112 crore having Adhaar cards, innovation will be the only way for sustainable prosperity for the country, Human Resources Development Minister Prakash Javadekar said here on Saturday.Inaugurating the Smart India Hackathon 2017 final round, Javadekar said the figures indicate the capacity of people to absorb technology has increased and this is the 'New India'.According to World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) statistics, India registers 40 patents per million population and hence considering the intellectual capability of Indians, there is a lot more that can be done in the field of innovation.The Hackathon is an effort in that direction and students can be encouraged to apply knowledge to real-life situations, and find innovative solutions for day-to-day problems, he added.Various departments and ministries have identified 598 problems to which 7,531 teams of around 42,000 students responded. Of these 1,266 teams of 10,000 students from 28 states are shortlisted for the finale being held simultaneously in 26 cities on Saturday.
The Smart India Hackathon has its roots in the Digital India, Start Up India and Make In India campaigns which need skilled and innovative workforces and with more than 10,000 programmers participating it is the biggest Hackathon in the world.Some of the problems identified include one from the Ministry of Railways on the condition of tracks which is critical for safe train operations and need to be monitored proactively.A software solution which monitors the track condition and allied infrastructure and generates auto-warning messages about the need for urgent maintenance can help prevent untoward incidents.Javadekar is the Chief Patron of the campaign with his ministry spearheading it through the All India Council for Technical Education as the main anchor with collaboration of the National Association of Software and Services Companies, Messrs i4C and Persisten Systems's Abhay Jere coordinating the efforts of various ministries.