Grand finale of Smart India Hackathon-2023 (Software Edition) to be organized at OP Jindal University from 19th December

26 teams from all over India will participate and more than 200 contestants will showcase their talent)

Raipur, 18 December 2023///// The grand finale of Smart India Hackathon-2023 (Software Edition) will be organized during 19-20 December 2023 at OP Jindal University, Raigarh, in which a total of 26 teams and more than 200 contestants from all over India will participate and showcase their talent. Dr. R. D. Patidar, Vice Chancellor of the University informed that OPJU has been selected as the Nodal Center for the Grand Finale of the sixth edition of Smart India Hackathon to be held from December 19 to December 20, 2023. To select OPJU as the Nodal Centre, the concerned officials visited university’s campus a few days ago and selected it as the Nodal Center on the basis of adequate facilities available in the university. The event is a nationwide initiative of the Ministry of Education Innovation Cell, which provides a platform for students to solve real-world challenges posed by government bodies, ministries, departments, industries and organizations. Over 50,000 ideas have been submitted by over 44,000 teams in this year's Smart India Hackathon. During theGrand Finale of Smart India Hackathon, student teams work round the clock under the guidance of mentors and industry/ministry representatives to create working solutions to the selected problem statements. This competition in OPJU will start on 19th December at 9 AM and will end on 20th December at 9 PM. All the participating teams will showcase their talent continuously for two days with 15 judges and mentors. There are total 47 Nodal Centers all over India for this competition and OPJU is one of them. In this competition, four teams have been selected from OPJU also, and they will showcase their talent by participating in various nodal centres. Smt. Shalu Jindal , Chancellor-OP Jindal University, Raigarh, congratulated Dr. R. D. Patidar , VC-OPJU and all the faculty and staff members and expressed best wishes for all the contestants participating in the competition.

Dr R. N. Shukla, Co-ordinator of Smart India Hackathon-2023 (Software Edition) Grand Finale  informed that  the university is fully prepared for this competition starting from December 19. The competition will be inaugurated on 19th December at 8:30 AMin the presence of Shri Anand Kumar Chandnani (Associate Vice President, Structural Steel Division- Production and Operations – Punjipathra), Dr. Nikhil Kant (Deputy Director, AICTE, New Delhi), Shri Shankar Venugopal ( Vice President, Mahindra & Mahindra, Chennai), Mr. Mrityunjay Singh (Senior Vice President, Infosys, Pune, Maharashtra) and Vice Chancellor of the University, Dr. R. D. Patidar. The coordinator of the program told that the teams participating in the competition will have to solve five problem statements. This will give students an opportunity to solve some serious problems of people's daily life.

It may be noted that OP Jindal University located at Punjipathra, Raigarh was established in 2014 (State Bill Act 13) by the country's prestigious industrial group - Jindal Group with the aim of providing world class education and training to the students of the country and abroad. The University is committed to providing world-class curriculum, world-class faculty, modern teaching methods, state-of-the-art infrastructure and a vibrant campus to the learners; and this university is working dedicatedly to provide world class education in steel technology and management.