PM to address Singapore-India Hackathon on Sep 30

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the participants of the Singapore-India Hackathon 2019 from IIT Madras on September 30.

Singapore-India Hackathon, an initiative of Modi, is the first of its kind joint international hackathon between India and any other country.

Addressing a press conference here, R. Subrahmanyam, Secretary, Department of Higher Education, said: "The aim of this joint international hackathon is to promote engagement and collaboration of student community in India with the rest of the world and to develop innovative and out- of -the- box solutions for some of the daunting problems faced by our societies."

He added that during the non-stop, fast-paced 36-hour Singapore-India Hackathon, the students will develop creative and innovative solutions focused on the themes. The first edition of the Singapore-India Hackathon was held at NTU, Singapore in November, 2018, based on the theme 'Smart Campus'.

This year the hackathon is focused on three themes, 'Good Health and well-being', 'Quality Education' and 'Affordable and Clean Energy'. It has 20 teams and for the first time each participating team would comprise of three students from India and three from Singapore, thereby paving the way for exchange of culture and ideas.

Modi will address the participants and would give away prizes to the winning teams on September 30 from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras. Singapore's Minister of Education Ong Ye Kung, Union Human Resource Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, and HRD Minister of State Sanjay Dhotre will also be present at the event.

The Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD), MHRD's Innovation Cell (MIC), All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) along with Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore and NTUitive Pte Ltd are co-organising the event.IANS