GUIDELINES FOR CONDUCTING INTERNAL HACKATHON SMART INDIA HACKATHON-2026

Dear College Representatives,

We appreciate your commitment towards participating in SIH-2026. Further to this, for organizing an Internal Hackathon (this is mandatory) in your college for SIH-2026 there is a set of guidelines and a reporting format which has to be followed. To ensure a smooth and successful event, please follow the guidelines outlined below. These guidelines are designed to help you prepare and report on the internal hackathon effectively.

1.Guidelines:

1. All team members must be from the same college; inter-college teams are not allowed.

2. Encourage students from different branches within your college or institute to form diverse teams.

3. Each team should consist of six members, including at least one female team member.

4. The choice of Problem statements could be from any theme or from the problem statement which is already published on the official SIH-2026 website

5. The judges/evaluators can be from academia or from the industry

6. You should encourage maximum team participation for a healthy competition

7. Please note that you have the flexibility to organize the internal hackathon in either online or offline mode

8. Maintain integrity and fairness throughout the event.

1. Report Submission:

College Single Point of Contact (SPOC) is responsible for uploading the Internal Hackathon report on the designated dashboard portal.

The report should be a single PDF document containing comprehensive details of the internal hackathon organized by your college. The maximum length of the report should not exceed 15 pages.

2. Mandatory Report Contents: Your report must contain the following sections:

· About the Event: Provide an overview of the internal hackathon, including its purpose and objectives.

· About the Problem Statement: Kindly mention the problem statements selected for the internal hackathon

· Event Photos: Include photographs capturing key moments and activities during the event.

· Participating Teams: Showcase pictures of all participating teams.

· Judging Process: Describe the process used for judging the hackathon projects.

· Jury Panel: Include photos and relevant details of the jury panel members.

· Nominated Top Teams: Highlight the top-performing teams.

· Judges Information: Include photos and details of the judges involved in the hackathon.

· Participation Statistics: Provide information on the total number of teams and students that participated along with relevant photos. Also mention the gender wise participation in the event

· News Articles: If available, include any news articles or press releases related to the event.

· Social Media Links: Share links to the event's promotion on social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

· Hashtags: Ensure the use of hashtags such as #sih2026 and #smartindiahackathon2026.

· Tag Official Page: Tag the official page of the Innovation Cell, Ministry of Education, on Twitter.

Your dedication to promoting innovation and technical excellence among students is commendable, and we look forward to your active participation in SMART INDIA HACKATHON-2026.