Smart India Hackathon

Guidelines for Deployment of Smart India Hackathon (SIH2024) Winning Projects

The Smart India Hackathon (SIH) is envisioned to promote innovation and out-of-the-box thinking among young minds and aims to institutionalize a model for harnessing the creativity and technical expertise of millions of Indian students for the direct benefit of our nation. Through the Smart India Hackathon 2024 (SIH2024), the Ministry of Education’s Innovation Cell (MIC) tried to crowdsource solutions for improving governance and quality of life and provide young citizens with an opportunity to co-create and present innovative solutions to India's pressing needs.

Post SIH, the Ministry of Education is committed to the further development, implementation, and deployment of SIH-winning ideas by effectively supporting the concerned ministries/departments. Hence, to initiate the development and deployment of SIH-winning ideas, the concerned Ministry/ Departments (Problem Statement given agency) is requested to follow the guidelines indicated below.

1 Hackathons are opportunities to quickly check the feasibility of any novel idea, hence projects developed during Hackathons are usually very crude and absolutely not ready for field implementation or deployment as working solutions. They require considerable work or development before implementation/deployment as reliable, dependable solutions.

2 Ideally, the duration for development and implementation of SIH winning project should be between 6 months to 1 year. However, the duration could be increased/decreased with the mutual consent of all the involved parties.

3 Once the Ministry of Education/AICTE shared the contact details of the winning teams with the respective ministry/department, they are requested to directly initiate communication with the winning teams to discuss further development and implementation roadmap of the winning ideas.

4 Ministry/Department should request a detailed project plan from the winning team which should include implementation details, tools (software & hardware) required, expert support required along with timelines.

5 Ministry should procure commercial software/ hardware critical for the development and implementation of the winning project.

6 Ideally, Ministry/ Department may identify an appropriate autonomous/technical agency/institution under its aegis for the overall coordination, development, and implementation of the proposed winning idea. In case the ministry/department does not have any autonomous/technical agency/institution under its aegis capable of handling this task, then a panel of experts may be appointed to oversee the development and deployment of the SIH-winning solution.

7 Minimum one experienced technical expert per idea/winning solution should be assigned as a ‘mentor’ to ensure timely progress and implementation of the project.

8 In the majority of cases, the winning team will work remotely from their college, hence effective coordination is very critical. It is highly recommended that the ministry/department schedule regular weekly/monthly monitoring sessions with each team through available video conferencing tools.

9 If required, an appropriate faculty member from the same institution of the winning team may be co-opted as an additional ‘mentor’ for better coordination on project development.

10 Additionally, written consent from the winning team’s educational institution should be taken committing support (permissions and time commitments) during the development and deployment of the project. Educational institutions will not have any financial burden in this regard.

11 The selected teams may be asked to visit the ministry/deployment site when required for project-related work. In such cases, expenses related to travel, stay and other logistic support need to be borne by the concerned department/ministry as per usual government norms.

12 In the case of software solutions, a cybersecurity expert may be engaged to ensure that the development of the winning solution is on par with the required safety standards.

13 In the case of a hardware-based product, then it is highly recommended that a ‘Product Design Expert’ may be regularly consulted to ensure state of an art product.

14 Stipend: It is highly recommended that the department/ministry provide a monthly stipend and/or internship to all members of teams working on the development and implementation of winning projects. Each team member can be given a consolidated stipend of Rs 5,000/- per month for a period of 6 months (minimum) or as per the Ministry/Department norms.

Note: A maximum of 6 students will get the above-mentioned stipend. If a team has more students (we have given each team a provision to add one more team member), then the stipend per student will be reduced to accommodate extra members.

15 Ministry/Department will share quarterly status reports regarding the implementation and development of SIH-winning solutions with the Ministry of Education’s Innovation cell and AICTE.

Intellectual Property (IP):

The Intellectual Property (IP) of the solution resides with the students who have developed and deployed the solution post-Hackathon but the concerned ministry will have lifetime access to the solution for free. This has been done to encourage Startups to be created out of the developed solutions while also keeping in mind the interest of the involved ministries.

Important Note:

In case the solution developed by the teams is an assembly of available components, then any conflict arising due to plagiarism, IP, or copyright violations, the individuals of the concerned team will be solely responsible. Hence, the teams have been advised to use verified open-source components only and acknowledge them appropriately. Ministry/department may also get a signed declaration from all the members of the team in this regard to indemnify itself from any legal conflict.
In some cases, the final-year students/participants of the winning team pass out of college and proceed to higher studies or jobs, or some members of the team (due to some personal reasons) may not wish to continue with project development post-SIH, in such scenarios the respective teams have the flexibility to include new members into the team as replacements.
If the IT/Domain expert from the ministry gets involved in the project quite seriously and turns out to be the major contributor (this can be determined after due consultation involving the respective team, the concerned ministry/department, and MIC/AICTE), then he/she can be considered as one of the contributors in IP.
Long Distance Travel: Each student is entitled to AC-III tier train ticket fare for long-distance travel. The amount will be reimbursed for producing the tickets by your ministry/department.
Short Distance Travel: Each student will be entitled to a consolidated amount of 1000/- per day for short-distance travel. The individual will have to justify his/her travel and provide relevant bills and receipts. If the bills/receipts are not produced, he/she won’t be reimbursed the said amount. Any distance within the radius of 100 Km will be considered a short distance. The central point of reference will be the individual’s college. If the student travels from any other location, the matter will be considered after satisfactory justification.
Stay: Each student can be entitled to a consolidated amount of 1,500/- per day in case of long-distance travel. The amount will be considered for reimbursement on producing relevant bills and receipts.
Cost Incurred during Field Visits: Other than travel and stay, if any other cost is incurred during any field visit to collect data/field survey or to undertake user testing etc (wherever required), each person will be entitled to an allowance of 500/- per day. To claim this amount, prior approval will have to be taken from your ministry or department for conducting the field visit.