“Hackathons are where your crazy idea becomes a reality”
India is experiencing a vast change in the way of recruitment for developers. Gone are the days when a 3 round coding test and HR rounds were pinnacles in evaluating your skills and creativity. Maybe the HRs are bored of asking the same question like “Why do you think that you are fit for this job?”
Madanmohan in his article for yourstory at explained the benefits of hackathons for both developers, founders, and tech providers. So what we are waiting for? Let’s read on the major hackathons puzzling the participants around India.
1) Smart India Hackathon: This is a national level technical event organized by Government of India. It is regarded as one of the biggest hackathons around the globe. One of the major projects of govt. under Digital India initiative whose main motto is to solve 598 social problems pointed out by 29 central and govt. departments. The Prize money for 1st, 2nd and 3rd among the participants is rs 1L, 50k, and 25k respectively. Nearly 42k students participate to form 7500 teams which are shortlisted to 10k students.
2) Rajasthan Hackathon: Skillenza organized Rajasthan Hackathon 3.0 on 2nd December 2017 at Mohanlal Sukhadia University, Udaipur, Rajasthan. The 24-hour mind-boggling, multi-topic marathon for coders, developers, designers, and inventors. The domains were AI, IoT, AR/VR, the blockchain, Bioinformatics and tourism to build tech for Rajasthan. Participants can form a team of 1–4 individuals. A prize money of 32 lakh is to be won by the winners and there is no participation fees. Moreover, there is a special benefit of reimbursement for participants traveling from different states. In 2017, over 1800 participants demonstrated 450 different projects in the preliminary round and 13 projects were shortlisted for the finals. Utkarsh Kumar and Vansh Arora, first-year students of VIT won the hackathon for building an ‘Augmented Reality’ app for Rajasthan Tourism. The students have signed a contract of 15 lakh with the Rajasthan Govt.
3) I_Hack: Organised by Entrepreneurship Cell IIT Bombay is one of the preferred spots among engineering students who are willing to take up the challenge of coding for 48 hours. The incentives are both hardware and software along with a prize money of 1.5 lakh in both the categories. Skillenza was its hackathon partner along with computer society of India as incubation partner.
4) Blockchain Hackathon: Organised by Entrepreneurship Cell IIT Delhi this hackathon will be favorable to you whether you are a competitive developer, startup founder, professional or a UI/UX expert, this Hackathon is an ideal platform for you to interact with the Investors and unlock your potential to ideate, invent and develop. The Top 3 will be funded by 40 million angels fund by Best Of Block Inc.
5) Angel Global Series Hackathon: One of the most renowned Hackathons around the globe organizes hackathon competitions for web developers and entrepreneurs, called AngelHacks, where they learn developer tools, meet new friends, and receive funding and mentorship for their startup ideas. In 2013, AngelHack will organize 100 hackathons, bringing together 15,000+ developers in 50+ cities(Kochi, Banglore, Hyderabad, Pune, Jaipur and New Delhi in India). Winners from every city are put through the AngelHack Accelerator Program, where they mentor them for 12 weeks before bringing them out to Silicon Valley to raise investment and introduce them to incubators.
6) SRM Hackathon: Organised by IT Association, SRM Institute of Science and Technology (formerly known as SRM University) was home to 1500 participants who were challenged to use their coding skills and hack intriguing life problems based on the various themes provided during the event. Among 1500 entries only 150 participants are shortlisted. The Prize Money for 1st, 2nd and 3rd are 1.5L, 1L and 50k respectively.
7) Codespace: Organised by CSI- VIT Student Branch(in Vellore) is a Digital India and Smart Cities Hackathon. The aim of the hackathon is to grant students the platform to showcase their ideas which can be innovated and implemented for the welfare of the country. The domains are Fintech and blockchain, AR/VR, Cloud Computing, Machine Learning and AI as well as Digital Literacy.
8) Hack2innovate: Organised in the month of November, it is a national-level hackathon that occurs over 24 hours in each of the 7 cities around the country. Coders, startups, entrepreneurs, researchers, designers, makers, technologists, and everyone — who is enthusiastic about Deep-Tech — will come together to uproot the Deep-Tech innovation. Prizes worth Rs 10 lakh are given to the finalists. Also, the NVIDIA Deep Learning Institute (DLI) offers hands-on training for developers, data scientists, and researchers looking to solve the world’s most challenging problems with deep learning.
9) Hack For Change: It is a series of hackathons focussed on solving real-life problems organized by Intertrust Technologies Corporation and was first held at The Garage, Hyatt Regency. The domain focuses on healthcare for elderly, air quality improvement, food security, and smart villages. The finalists get prizes worth Rs. 50k along with a chance to appear in job interview for InterTrust Technologies.
10) DCB FINTECH Hackathon: It is organized with the intention of bringing together developers, institutes, ventures, and designers under the same roof to develop innovative products and technologies for DCB Bank. The hackathon is organized in 6 cities in India comprising of Gurgaon, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune, and Hyderabad. Prize Money for students those who secured 1st, 2nd and 3rd prize are 2L, 1L and 50k respectively. Prize Money for startups, developers & domain experts who secured 1st, 2nd and 3rd positions are 3L, 2L, and 1L. In last round, participants would be invited to present their Minimum Viable Solution to an eminent Jury and top 3 teams from each category will be felicitated.
Other Hackathons: HackInTheNorth(IIIT Allahabad), Digital India Hackathon(ACM India), Paytm-NASSCOM Build for India Hackathon, HackBanglore’ 18.
