Taking forward Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Startup India, Standup India' initiative Smart India Hackathon 2017 kicked off today at Civil Aviation Training College in Allahabad.

'Smart India Hackathon 2017' is conceived by All India Council for Higher Education (AICTE), under the aegis of Ministry of Human Resource Development 2017'to harnesses creativity & expertise of students and builds funnel for 'Startup India, Standup India' campaigns

Keshav Sharma, Executive Director, Civil Aviation Training College, Allahabad said "This is Smart India Hackathon 2017 event. It is organized by the Ministry of HRD and other 16 ministries of the government of India. The event has been going on since November and we have contacted nearly 3 lakh students from across the country. We had a talk with these young minds of the problems and issues in the government departments. Then, these students sent their entries and we shortlisted them and this event is the finale. Now, all of us, including students and different departments will sit continuously for 36 hours and give specific solution to the problems of government departments."

On behalf of Ministry of Civil Aviation, 43 problem statements were thrown to students for which more than 350 ideas from teams of young IT students were received.

After preliminary evaluation, 61 teams were shortlisted who participated at this 36 Hours long Grand Finale.

Out of the 7531 idea submissions received for the 598 problems posted by 29 govt. departments, 1266 ideas have been shortlisted for the 'Grand Finale' on April 1 & 2, 2017, during which these teams will work nonstop for 36 hours to build products based on their ideas across 26 locations in India.

Dr. Abhijeet Vichare, AICTE Coordinator further added " Smart India Hackathon 2017 is a pan-India event. Students from nearly 2100 colleges have participated in the event. In this two-day event, 10,000 students across the 26 centers are solving the problem. All the problems have been given by the different ministries of the government of India."

S R Mishra, Airport Director, Civil Air Terminal, Allahabad adds "We have made wide arrangements for receiving our guests for Hackathon. Today, lots of judges are also expected to come. Similarly we have made arrangements for their departure also. So, our arrangement is perfect for handling additional passengers."

'Smart India Hackathon 2017' is expected to become the 'World's biggest open innovation model' that other countries can replicate.