Launch of Singapore India Hackathon 2023
13th March 2023
The Singapore-India Hackathon 2023 (SIH-23) was inaugurated on March 13, 2023 at The Imperial Hotel Ballroom in New Delhi by Dharmendra Pradhan, India's Union Education Minister, and Gan Kim Yong, Singapore's Trade and Industry Minister. Mr. Ashwani Kumar and Mr. Ashish Khurana, from the department of Computer Science Engineering of Dronacharya College of Engineering, Gurugram, as well as Mr. Pratham Tiwari, the team leader for the Smart India Hackathon-22 winning team, attended the event.
The event was started at 10:00 AM on 13th March at The Imperial Hotel Ballroom, New Delhi with Lighting of Lamp and Hackathon Website Launch by the Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, Honorable Minister of Education, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Government of India, Mr. Gan Kim Yong, Honorable Minister for Trade and Industry, Government of Singapore, Mr Simon Wong Wie Kuen, Honorable High Commissioner of Singapore to the Republic of India, Professor Lam Khin Yong, Vice President (Industry) NTU, Singapore, Mr Sopnendu Mohanty, Chief Fintech Officer, Monetary Authority of Singapore, Professor T G Sitharam, Chairman, All India Council of Technical Education and Dr Abhay Jere, Vice Chairman AICTE.
Singapore-India Hackathon 2023 will be hosted in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India in August as part of India's G20 Presidency. This unique event will bring together 24 Startups and 12 Student teams from both nations, who were chosen through a stringent vetting procedure. Teams will present their solutions to the problem statements on the given topics at their final event. The top three winners will receive prizes.
Professor Lam Khin Yong, Vice President (Industry), NTU Singapore, delivered the event's welcome speech. Minister Shri Dharmendra Pradhan and Mr.Gan Kim Yong launched the Hackathon and delivered the keynote speech, which was followed by the inaugural remarks and lamp lighting ceremony.
During his speech, Shri Pradhan stated that SIH offers a forum for youthful thinkers to cooperate and find answers to the most urgent issues. He said, “Singapore is India's reliable ally and companion. To achieve our common goal, empower the voice of the global south, ensure global wealth, and turn India into a global center of trained labor, we must concentrate on the three Cs: capacity, capability, and capital. SIH2023 will utilize the power of our respective countries, promote innovation, strengthen interactions and partnerships between India and Singapore across emerging fields, and help fulfil our global duties, guided by the subject of India's G20 Presidency-Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam.”
Mr Gan said during his address said, “he looks forward to working with Mr Pradhan to encourage our educational institutions and business associations to develop skilling programmes that will enable our people to keep pace with the demand for increasingly complex skills and future-proof their employability.”
The Monetary Authority of Singapore will also be participating in this year's hackathon to lend their expertise. This is the first time that students and startups will be working together like this. According to Mr. Sopnendu Mohanty, senior fintech officer at the central bank, said that "We want to see that the winners find a path to commercialization using our ecosystem.” The winners of the SIH-23 will be showcased at the Singapore FinTech Festival. The Nanyang Technological University and the Indian Ministry of Education are going to be the ones in charge of organizing the hackathon.
After the tea break, a panel discussion entitled "Why is Asia Leading the World in Fintech Innovation?" was organized from 11:00 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. The panellists of this discussion were Vijay Sekhar Sharma, Founder, One97 & PayTM, Sopnendu Mohanty, Chief Fintech Officer, Monetary Authority of Singapore, Bin Ru Tan, Deputy CEO of Chainup Pte Ltd and President, Singapore Blockchain Association, Walter de Oude, Founder, Singlife and Chocolate Finance.
The second panel discussion from 11:45 AM to 12:45 PM was organized on "ESG Leadership in Asia: The Imperative for Innovation, Regulation, and Action" with panelists Niel Parekh, Partner & Head of Asia, Australia, and New Zealand at Tikehau Capital & Chairman, The Singapore Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SICCI), Amita Chaudhury, Group Head of Sustainability, AIA, Prof. Tim White, Vice President (International Engagement), President’s Chair in Materials Science and Engineering at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
Finally, from 12:45 PM to 2:30 PM, a networking lunch with business executives, start-ups, investors, and policymakers was arranged, and the event was declared closed. Overall, the event was a huge success, and participants learned a lot about starting businesses and commercializing them. Students were inspired to participate in the 3rd Singapore-India Hackathon, which will be held on August 2023 in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India.