What is Smart India Hackathon (SIH) 2026?

Smart India Hackathon (SIH) is the world’s biggest open innovation hackathon organized by the Ministry of Education, AICTE, and MIC, where student teams build hardware and software solutions for problem statements submitted by Government Ministries, Departments, and State Agencies.

How many problem statements are released in SIH 2026?

SIH 2026 features 226 official problem statements, comprising 172 Software category statements and 54 Hardware category statements across themes like Smart Automation, Agriculture, Disaster Management, MedTech, Clean Water, and Cybersecurity.

How does the SIH ONE AI Team Matchmaker work?

The SIH ONE Matchmaker takes your 6-member team’s frontend/backend/AI skills, hardware experience, domain preferences, and exclusions, then runs a multi-factor weighted scoring algorithm to rank the top 25 highest-fit problem statements.

How does the voice-to-khata feature parse complex multi-item transactions in regional dialects?

We use a fine-tuned domain entity extraction pipeline: the speech model transcribes vernacular colloquial phrasing (e.g. 'Sharma ji ko 200 ka udhar diya') into structured financial tuples (Customer: Sharma, Type: Debit, Amount: 200, Timestamp: Now) in under 600 milliseconds.

How does cash-flow-based credit scoring help micro-merchants access bank loans?

Through the RBI-regulated Account Aggregator (AA) framework, the merchant consents to share their real-time UPI transaction receipts; our machine learning underwriting model calculates average daily cash velocity and debt capacity, enabling instant ₹25,000-₹1,00,000 working capital loans from partner banks.

How does automated WhatsApp reminder integration speed up merchant cash recovery?

Automated polite WhatsApp reminders with embedded dynamic UPI QR payment links reduce customer credit recovery times by over 40%, eliminating the awkwardness of manual debt collection calls.

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PS 26207SOFTWARETravel & TourismFast Prototype (36h)

Student Innovation

AICTE• AICTE, MIC-Student Innovation

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30-Second Plain English Summary

AICTE Open Innovation: Tertiary Sectors / FinTech, Hospitality & Retail (Software) — Micro-enterprises and small retailers in India (kirana stores, restaurants, service providers) struggle with fragmented accounting, uncollected customer credit (Khata), inventory losses, and high payment transaction fees. Build an AI-Powered Smart Micro-Merchant ERP, Conversational Voice Khata, and Digital Credit Underwriting Platform that enables small businesses to manage digital ledgers, automate customer payment reminders via WhatsApp, and access instant low-interest working capital loans via Account Aggregator (AA) rails.

5-Dimension Strategic ScorecardOverall Score: 3.6 / 5.0

Innovation

3.6 / 5

36h Feasibility

4.3 / 5

Uniqueness

3.4 / 5

Jury Appeal

3.5 / 5

Tech Depth

3.3 / 5

Recommended System Architecture Pipeline

Merchant Spoken Voice -> Indic Speech-to-Text & Financial Entity Parser -> Digital Double-Entry Ledger -> WhatsApp UPI Reminder Bus -> Account Aggregator Credit Underwriter

Recommended Tech StackClick to search similar

Official Government Problem Description

Technology ideas in tertiary sectors like Hospitality, Financial Services, Entertainment and Retail.

AI & PPT Citation Format

Smart India Hackathon 2026 Problem Statement PS-26207: "Student Innovation", Ministry: AICTE. Strategy & Architecture via SIH ONE (https://sihone.pages.dev/ps/26207)

Student Innovation

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