New Delhi, August 1: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday launched the Smart India Hackathon 2020 finale through video conferencing and said that it was a challenging task to conduct the hackathon in the times of Coronavirus. He said that Artificial Intelligence can be a huge facilitator to make our facilities, effective, interactive and people-friendly.

Addressing the students through video conferencing at SIH 2020, PM Modi stressed on the importance of artificial intelligence and said, "To make our facilities, effective, interactive and people-friendly, Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be a huge facilitator." PM Narendra Modi's Address at Smart India Hackathon 2020 Live Streaming: Watch Prime Minister’s Speech on DD News, PIB YouTube Channel.

The Indian Premier also congratulated students from MGM College of Engineering and Technology Ernakulam for creating a virtual assistant which can help patients in incubators. PM Modi said, with data-driven solutions, healthcare solutions are creating a huge change. He said that the government is working to bring in these data-driven healthcare solutions to help provide affordable solutions to poor under Ayushman Bharat Yojna.

Addressing the students at SIH 2020 Grand Finale, PM Modi said that awareness about women's hygiene has come really late in India. He applauded the students of Ernakulam for creating products to solve problems for people in the North East. PM Modi stated that this gives power to the idea of Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat.

Asking the students to create a real-time tracking and alert system to ensure the safety of women and children, PM Modi said that he will connect the innovators to the IPS training institute. PM Modi said, "I will ask IPS training institute to connect with you and then you give your presentation to these people. You should interact with people on the field and this will help you make your product user friendly and make it better reaching."

PM Modi even said that holding the competition under such circumstances was a huge challenge. He said, "Holding this competition in these circumstances was the first challenge which you have solved. The challenges which you have been working on, I am curious to know about them."

SIH 2020 is considered to be a unique initiative where students will identify new and disruptive digital technology innovations for solving the challenges faced by our country. It is a non-stop digital product development competition in which technology students will be asked to suggest an innovative solution to the problems by our country.

This year's SIH theme is 'No problem is too big... No idea is too small' and the finale of the hackathon is conducted online due to COVID-19. The SIH 2020 is a nationwide initiative which offers a platform to students to solve some of the pressing problems that we face in our daily lives. The first edition of Smart India Hackathon was organised in 2017. PM Modi had on Friday lauded the youth for their efforts to innovate new applications along with ways to create an Aatmanirbhar Bharat.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 01, 2020 05:13 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).