New Delhi, March 21 The second edition of ‘5G Innovation Hackathon 2026’ aims to foster next-generation telecom solutions, seeking to catalyse the development of innovative and scalable solutions leveraging 5G and allied technologies, according to the government.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has launched the second edition of its flagship initiative under the ‘100 5G Use Case Labs’ Initiative. The submissions will remain open until April 17.
The Hackathon invites participation from students, startups, MSMEs, and innovators across the country.
“Proposals will be received through the designated 100 5G Use Case Lab institutions, which will function as nodal centres. All entries will undergo a structured multi-stage evaluation process, including institute-level screening, regional committee assessment, national level evaluation based on presentations, prototype development support and final evaluations based on physical demonstrations,” said DoT in a statement.
Applications are invited across a broad spectrum of thematic areas, including 5G and 5G Advanced-based use cases, applications of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning for telecom technology development as well as network operations and maintenance, and IoT-enabled applications in sectors such as healthcare, agriculture, education, industrial automation and other key areas of the economy.
It further stated that selected teams will be provided both financial and infrastructural support to convert their ideas into working prototypes.
A dedicated seed funding pool of Rs 50 lakh has been earmarked for this purpose.
In addition, teams will have access to the advanced infrastructure available at the 100 5G Use Case Labs established across premier academic institutions for testing, validation, and refinement of their solutions.
The Hackathon offers a total prize pool exceeding Rs 10 lakh. The first prize carries Rs 5,00,000, followed by Rs 3,00,000 for the runner-up and Rs 1,50,000 for the second runner-up, along with a special Best Idea award of Rs 50,000.
In addition, support for Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) filing will be extended to up to 25 teams.
The final results will be declared on October 1, 2026, and the selected innovations will be showcased and awarded at India Mobile Congress 2026, according to the DoT.
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