- A five-jury panel comprising experts from industry, academia, and the Ministry evaluated the final solutions
- The second-place winners were IIT Jammu, VIT Vellore, and NIT Goa in their respective categories
- NMIMS Mumbai, IIIT Vadodara, and IIT Kharagpur secured third place in their respective categories
NE EDUCATION BUREAU
GANDHINAGAR, MAR 24
The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar (IITGN), successfully concluded its 36-hour hackathon titled “Hack the Future” on Sunday at the IITGN campus.
The event witnessed participation from 17 teams representing prestigious academic institutions across India which included IITs, NITs, IIITs etc. Participants tackled three innovative challenges presented to them with guidance given by mentors from the Ministry and the institute. A five-jury panel comprising experts from industry, academia, and the Ministry evaluated the final solutions.
Prizes were awarded to the top three solutions across three categories. Plaksha University, Chandigarh claimed the top spot in two categories.
Each team was mentored by experts from IITGN and MoSPI, including esteemed scholars and industry professionals.
Dr Saurabh Garg, IAS, Secretary, MoSPI, addressed the participants, highlighting the significance of working with real data. He emphasised the importance of transforming data into valuable information and shared his optimism for the nation’s future, stating, “You are at an age that is perfect for being in India, especially as we look toward the next 25 years of building a viksit bharat.”
Prof Rajat Moona, Director, IITGN, congratulated the participants for their efforts and encouraged them to continue their journey of innovation. He stated, “The spark ignited here should not be extinguished. This is just the beginning of many innovations that you are capable of creating.”
P R Meshram, Director General, MoSPI, shared the potential plans for the projects, stating, “We will evaluate these projects further, and those that show promise will be integrated into our operational framework. We are committed to fostering collaborations and strengthening partnerships with academia, institutions, and industry experts. The creativity, dedication, and collaboration demonstrated throughout this event are truly impressive.”
Vijay Kumar Ivaturi, Co-Founder and CTO of Crayon Data, and one of the jury members, praised the participating teams for their remarkable efforts. He noted, “It was incredibly difficult to finalise the winners because the projects were so impressive. ‘Hack The Future 2025’ stands out as one of the few hackathons that allowed participants to work with real data, which made it a unique and invaluable experience.”
Team 404, consisting of Anirudh Chauhan, Ayush Sharma, Japsahaj Kaur, Rishav Kumar, and Vijeta from Plaksha University, secured the first prize for their solution to the problem statement, “Development of an AI/ML-based predictive model for the estimation of Monthly Per Capita Expenditure (MPCE).” The second and third prizes were awarded to Team Nexus from IIT Jammu and Team Insight Seekers from NMIMS, Mumbai, respectively.
For the problem statement “Development of Semantic Search from text to National Industrial Classification Code,” the first prize was claimed by Team KAPTURE, which included Akash Gupta, Devansh Awasthi, Kaustav Banerjee, Kunal Kumar Gupta, and Pranjal Srivastava from Rajiv Gandhi Petroleum University, Raibareli. Team WeForce from VIT, Vellore, and Team HareNTortoise from IIIT Vadodara received the second and third prizes, respectively.
In the category of “AI-based Legacy Data Extraction and Processing Tool,” the first prize was awarded to Team The Waffle, comprising Arbaaz Shafiq, Arnav Rustagi, Chaitanya Modi, Jiya Agrawal, and Pranjal Rastogi from Plaksha University. Team Webstart from NIT Goa and Team Legacy Hackers from IIT Kharagpur won the second and third prizes, respectively.
