NEW DELHI: Emphasising that the future of the world will be driven by innovation and knowledge, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said the youth are India’s hope and aspiration in the changing situation. He added that the government is introducing reforms to remove roadblocks in their path.
Interacting with young innovators during the grand finale of the Smart India Hackathon (SIH), Modi said the youth today is developing a feeling of ownership towards finding solutions for the country's challenges.
Highlighting that India should become the most innovative, progressive and prosperous country in the world, the prime minister said that the world was acknowledging that India's strength was its innovative youth and tech power.
"We have introduced a new National Education Policy (NEP) to nurture a scientific mindset. The government is removing roadblocks in the path of the country's youth by introducing reforms," Modi said during his address to more than 1,300 student teams via video conferencing.
"The future of the world will be driven by innovation and knowledge and India's youth today is developing a feeling of ownership towards finding solutions for the country's challenges," he said, adding that the world of the future is going to be driven by knowledge and innovation and youth were India's hope and aspiration in changing situations.
He further said that many of the solutions of all the hackathons that have taken place in the last seven years are proving to be very useful for the people of the country today. The seventh edition of the SIH concurrently began at 51 nodal centres nationwide on Wednesday.
Stressing the need to think out of the box for every challenge in the country's aspirations in today’s time, Modi said the need to incorporate out-of-the-box thinking in our habits in every sector.
Highlighting the speciality of the Hackathon, the PM said its process is important as well as the product.
Adding that there was a time when only the government used to claim to solve the country's problems. However, today, he said, through such Hackathons, students, teachers and mentors are also being connected to solutions.
He stressed that this was India's new governance model and 'Sabka Prayas' is the life force of this model.
Like past editions, the student teams will work on either the problem statements given by ministries, departments or industries or submit their ideas under the Student Innovation category against any of the 17 themes linked to sectors of national importance.
These sectors are - healthcare, supply chain and logistics, smart technologies, heritage and culture, sustainability, education and skill development, water, agriculture and food, emerging technologies, and disaster management.
According to the Union Ministry of Education, this year, more than 250 problem statements have been submitted by 54 ministries, departments, state governments, PSUs and industries.
"A 150 per cent increase has been recorded in internal hackathons at the institute level, growing from over 900 in the SIH 2023 to around 2,247 in SIH 2024, making this the largest edition so far.
"More than 86,000 teams have participated in the SIH 2024 at the institute level and around 49,000 student teams (each consisting of 6 students and 2 mentors) have been recommended by these institutes for the national level round," the ministry said.