The Department of Telecommunications (DoT), GoI invites applications for the 5G Hackathon 2025. The last date to apply for this is April 15 2025. check the details below!
About
The 5G Innovation Hackathon 2025 aims to bring together students, startups, and professionals to develop cutting-edge solutions using 5G labs in 100 institutes across India. The Hackathon will facilitate solution development in key technology areas such as AI-driven network maintenance, IoT-enabled applications, smart healthcare, industrial automation, quantum communication, and more.
The hackathon provides a collaborative platform to the stakeholders to innovate and develop prototypes/ applications/ solutions through access to 5G labs, mentorship from industry and academic experts during the hackathon, provision of seed funding to the shortlisted proposals, and support for commercialization.
Hackathon Theme
“Innovating the Future with 5G Technologies” to address India-specific problems of various the socio-economic sectors
Eligible Participants
- Undergraduate (UG) and Postgraduate (PG) students
- Startups and professionals
- Collaboration with students, startups and professionals.
Hackathon Rules
- Participants must be undergraduate/postgraduate students, startups, professionals or in their collaboration with others.
- Each team must submit a comprehensive proposal to any of the 5G Use case labs in 100 institutes outlining their problem statement, proposed solution, and expected impact.
- Each institutions shall recommend 1-5 proposals to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) after internal screening.
- Proposals will go through regional and national shortlisting before progressing to prototype development.
- Teams will have access to labs for prototype development, and will be provided mentorship by experts.
- The shortlisted proposals at regional level will be provided seed funding for further development of projects.
- The final evaluation will be based on technical execution, scalability, market readiness, societal impact, and novelty.
- Winning teams will receive cash prizes and opportunities to showcase their projects on national platforms.
- Intellectual property rights (IPR) support will be provided for viable solutions.
Structure
- Stage I: Online Proposal Submission
- Stage II: Shortlisting at institute, regional, and national levels
- Stage III: Pragati Phase (Prototype Development) – 3-month development period with ₹1,00,000 funding per team
- Stage IV: Final Evaluation & Showcase – Winners will be selected by a Technical Expert Evaluation Committee (TEEC)
Prizes
- 1st Place: ₹5,00,000
- Runner-up: ₹3,00,000
- 2nd Runner-up: ₹1,50,000
- Special Mentions: ₹50,000 for Best Idea & Most Innovative Prototype
Timeline
- Call for Proposals: From 15 March – 15 April 2025
- Finalization of Regional Level Winners: April 30, 2025
- Shortlisted Teams Announcement: June 16, 2025
- Pragati Phase (Prototype Development): June 16 – September 15, 2025
- Final Evaluation & Showcase: September 16 – September 30, 2025
- Winners Announcement: October 1, 2025
How to Apply
Interested candidates can apply through this link.
Deadline
April 15 2025.
