Smart India Hackathon 2025 kicks off nationwide at AICTE headquarters

Srinagar, Dec 8: The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and Ministry of Education’s Innovation Cell (MIC) launched the Grand Finale of the 8th Edition of Smart India Hackathon (SIH) 2025 — the country’s largest student-driven innovation initiative aimed at solving real-world challenges of national importance.

The national event was inaugurated at AICTE Headquarters, New Delhi, by Prof TG Sitharam, Chairman, AICTE, in the presence of Dr Abhay Jere, Vice Chairman, AICTE Dr Shyama Rath, Member Secretary, AICTE, MSwapan Dhar, MD, SBI Foundation, Dr Suchendra, Head – Academic Alliance, TCS and Dr. Pratap Sanav, Persistent Systems Pvt Ltd. The launch marks the beginning of a nationwide innovation marathon being hosted concurrently across 60 Nodal Centres, including 42 software and 18 hardware centres, where finalist teams will engage in intensive coding and prototyping sessions over the next few days.

In his inaugural address, Prof Sitharam highlighted that India is swiftly advancing towards the vision of Viksit Bharat 2047, backed by a thriving innovation ecosystem.

He emphasized that SIH exemplifies the creativity, commitment, and ambitions of young innovators working to shape the nation’s future and strengthen Atmanirbhar Bharat. He boosted the motivation of the finalists for the 36-hour long hackathon.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Jere shared that over two lakh evaluations were conducted this year, underscoring the scale, credibility, and growing impact of SIH.