Smart India Hackathon grand finale kicks off in Meghalaya

Students from across India descended on Monday at North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU) here in Meghalaya for the grand finale of the eight edition of Smart India Hackathon (SIH) 2025–Software Edition.
Held under the theme ‘Hack for Bharat, Build for the World’, the SIH 2025 finale at NEHU aims to highlight emerging talent in technology and reaffirm the university’s focus on innovation, entrepreneurship and research-driven development.
The prestigious national event—an initiative of the Ministry of Education’s Innovation Cell (MIC) and AICTE—brought together some of India’s brightest young innovators for an intensive 36-hour coding marathon, aimed at building practical solutions for real-world challenges posed by various ministries, industries, and government agencies. The event will conclude on Tuesday.
Inaugurating the hackathon, Santosh V. T., Scientist F & State Information Officer, National Informatics Centre (NIC), MeitY, urged the young innovators to understand the core problem being handled by them and visualise their solutions in a larger context and refine them for real-world environment and application.
“Hackathons are not just about generating ideas but also about converting them into tangible solutions that can create an impact,” Santosh said.
Emphasising on the transformative role of technology in digital governance and public service delivery, Santosh encouraged students to continue exploring these ideas beyond the event and strive to contribute to society through innovation and technology,
“You (young innovators) should design solutions to further strengthen the Digital India mission and bridge critical gaps between citizens and governance through secure and efficient digital platforms,” he told the young innovators assembled at the Multi-Convention Hall, NEHU.
Director (Innovation) of union ministry of Education’s Innovation Cell, Yogesh Brahmankar, spoke about the national vision of SIH as a large-scale movement to crowdsource ideas for governance and societal betterment.
He highlighted the significance of the 2025 edition and urged the participants to build ethical, scalable, and socially impactful technological solutions.
Adding to the spirit of encouragement, Pro-Vice Chancellor, NEHU, Prof. B. Mishra, underscored the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration in building effective solutions and motivated the teams to innovate fearlessly throughout the 36-hour challenge.