Smart India Hackathon 2017 which took place in five centres, Pune, Allahabad, Coimbatore, Nagpur, Ahmedabad and Kolkata, focused on the health sector and how technology could help the sector to develop further, apart from tech education.

In a press conference, Vice Chairman of All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), M.P. Poonia highlighted the major aspects of tech education in India as compared to other countries.

Poonia said that around 40 lakh students are opting for tech education every year, while 24.5 per cent of them take up tech studies in higher education, which is quite lower than our neighboring country China's 40 per cent.

Speaking about tech education in India, Poonia highlighted the negative aspects of an age-old syllabus, which are incompatible with the market.

Regarding the Hackathon, Poonia said: "Our target is to make each student capable of getting a job. Each graduate student should be able to join the market."

"Purpose of AICTE is to improve the confidence of the students. We are trying to take the country forward," Vice Chairman of AICTE added.

Out of 138 teams of GNIT students, only 22 teams were selected for Hackathon, and a selected few among them interacted with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Students, during a brief interaction with IBNS, divulged a few key points that they would like to bring to the notice of the PM.

A young student said that he would like to request the PM to create opportunities so that they can do something beyond what is stated in the syllabus and innovate.

A female student hoped that Prime Minister Modi would take steps to bring gender equality in engineering courses as male students outnumbered female students in classrooms.

Health was a key issue discussed in the press conference. Dr. Smrita Mahale of Indian Council of Medical Research put forward some ways by which technology may be used as a solution to health-related problems.

"Cross talk between engineers and medical professionals is highly important. We are trying to find out whether we can provide solutions to health-related problems through technology," Mahale said.

One of the doctors present in the conference also stated that IT based GPS system can be developed to make patients aware of nearby hospitals and also the other way round.

Poonia hinted that Smart India Hackathon 2018 could be based on electronics.

(Reporting by Souvik Ghosh)