Smart India Hackathon 2025 – one of the world’s largest innovation hackathons

AICTE Chairman Prof TG Sitharam inaugurates SIH at 60 nodal centres across India virtually; Dr Nikhil Kant launches in person at Vardhaman College of Engineering

“SIH is not a competition, it is an innovation movement,” says AICTE Chairman

VCE selected among 60 nodal centres nationwide—and five in Telangana—for India’s largest innovation drive

151 students from 11 states compete in the national innovation challenge at VCE

Participants at VCE were given five problem statements from the Government of Jammu & Kashmir

Hyderabad is probably the largest city in India to host SIH across five nodal centres, describing it as a major national innovation hub: Dr Nikhil Kant, Dy Director, AICTE

Hyderabad, December 08, 2025: One of the world’s largest hackathons—the Smart India Hackathon (SIH) 2025, organised by the Ministry of Education’s Innovation Cell (MoE), Government of India and the All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), commenced today at Vardhaman College of Engineering (VCE), one of the 60 nodal centres nationwide and one of five in Telangana.

The two-day Software edition and the five-day Hardware edition were launched nationally by Prof TG Sitharam, Chairman, AICTE, in a virtual inaugural, participated by 8,160 finalists from 727 institutions across India. The physical event at VCE was inaugurated by Dr Nikhil Kant, Deputy Director, AICTE. The event at Vardhaman College of Engineering will conclude on Tuesday.

“SIH is not a competition, it is the innovation movement” – AICTE Chairman said.

Addressing students virtually across the country, Prof TG Sitharam said, “I am addressing you not as students, but as national builders. You are India’s changemakers and problem solvers.”

Sharing the scale of participation, he informed that SIH 2025 received 72,165 ideas this year from 68,766 student teams across India based on 271 problem statements, out of which 1,360 top teams (8,160 participants) were selected for the Grand Finale, including 2993 women participants and 53 all-girls teams, marking a 26% jump in idea submissions and a 75.4% rise in women participation.

He further announced AICTE’s declaration of 2025 as the Year of Artificial Intelligence, accelerating AI adoption across Higher and Technical Education.

Prof Sitharam highlighted APF—a national initiative supporting engineering students and recent graduates in converting innovative ideas into market-ready products through a fellowship of ₹37,000 per month and project funding up to two years—encouraging SIH participants to register immediately.

He also urged teams to enrol in: ULLAS – Lifelong Learning for All, Universal Human Values initiative and Nasha Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan

Dr Nikhil Kant, speaking at VCE, stated that Hyderabad is probably the largest city in India to host SIH across five nodal centres, describing it as a major national innovation hub.

VCE is hosting 151 finalists from 11 states, working on five problem statements sponsored by the Government of Jammu & Kashmir.

The 151 students, divided into 25 teams at VCE were given 1. AI-Based Timetable Generation aligned to NEP 2020; 2. Digital Mental Health and Psychological Support System; 3. Centralised Digital Platform for Student Activity Records; 4. One-Stop Personalised Career & Education Advisor and 5. Prashikshan – Academia–Industry Interface

A winning team will be selected for each challenge, receiving a cash prize of ₹1.5 lakh from the Government of Jammu & Kashmir.

A JNTU-Hyderabad team, developing an AI-enabled stress monitoring system for students, includes participants from J&K, Telangana and other states is also participating.

Welcoming the participants, Prof JVR Ravindra, Principal & Nodal Centre Head, VCE, remarked, “Smart India Hackathon is not a competition; it is your contribution to your country. Innovation is not a fancy topic—it is our moral responsibility.”

The inauguration at VCE was also graced virtually and physically by: Dr Sandeep Shukla, Director, IIIT Hyderabad; Dr Sachin Agarwal, Director – GenAI, PepsiCo; Mr Purnachander Goli, Delivery Head – Data Analytics, Tata Consultancy Services; Dr Rajender, Dean Academics, VCE and Prof Krishna Chaithanya Janapati, Nodal Centre SPOC

SIH is India’s largest open-innovation platform where students work directly on real problem statements submitted by Government Ministries, PSUs and State Governments—including Defence, Railways, Agriculture, Education and this year Jammu & Kashmir.

Solutions are often adopted immediately, incubated as start-ups, funded, and piloted across departments—making SIH India’s only platform linking academia with governance at a national scale.

A flagship initiative of MoE and AICTE, SIH has emerged as one of the world’s biggest innovation movements, mobilising lakhs of young technologists annually to build solutions for public-service and citizen-governance challenges.