AICTE to organise KAVACH-2023 hackathon to address challenges in cybersecurity domain

In the Finale, participants will unveil their concepts, substantiating their technical viability and real-world application

With over 100 teams from higher educational institutions poised to engage in presenting their ideas and solutions in the cybersecurity domain, the stage is set for KAVACH 2023, a national hackathon organised jointly by the Ministry of Education's Innovation Cell, AICTE, Bureau of Police Research and Development, and the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (Ministry of Home Affairs) to kick-start its journey. The initiative aims to unearth innovative ideas and technological solutions to address the challenges confronting law enforcement agencies and ordinary citizens in the realm of cybersecurity. 

The hackathon will be launched across five strategic nodal centres: Bhopal's IES College of Technology, Bangalore's AMC Engineering College, Bhubaneswar's Centurion University of Technology and Management, New Panvel's Pillai College of Engineering, and Greater Noida's GL Bajaj Institute of Technology and Management.

The event will have an eclectic array of 20 problem statements, calling upon the students to compete for the top ranks by submitting their visionary solutions. Among the problem statements are a new-age women's safety app, an obscenity blocker solution, an advanced fake news detection system, a phishing detection solution, cutting-edge ANPR and FRS solutions, a dark web crawler, a spam alert system, a malware analysis tool, a CCTV analytics solution, a RAM dump collection tool, a citizen safety app for safeguarding against cybercrimes, an indigenous crypto currency investigation tool, to mention a few. 

In the finale, participants will unveil their concepts, substantiating their technical viability and real-world application. 

Balaji Srivastava, DG, BPR&D said, "Participants in this Hackathon are embarking on a journey of creativity, collaboration, and problem-solving. It is their chance to innovate, collaborate and impact digital security for a safer tomorrow."

AICTE chairman Prof TG Sitharam, while underscoring the significance of this event, said, "KAVACH-2023 challenges India's innovative minds to envision ideas and frameworks in the domain of cybersecurity, leveraging artificial intelligence, deep learning, machine learning, automation, big data, and cloud computing."

Vice-chairman of AICTE Abhay Jere further explained, "This unique opportunity welcomes higher institutional students and startups from India to present their innovative ideas and concepts for various problem statements."

Source: Education Times dated 8th August 2023

URL: https://www.educationtimes.com/article/newsroom/99733346/aicte-to-organise-kavach-2023-hackathon-to-address-challenges-in-cybersecurity-domain

Meet Kautilya Katariya, a Seven-Year-Old Genius Who is Now World's Youngest Coder

Numbers and codes are Kautilya Katariya's breakfast. ( Screenshot from YouTube/ Programming With Mosh )

Believe it or not, Kautilya Katariya exists as the world's younger coder at the age of seven.
Kautilya Katariya is Inhuman in his Feat

Kautilya Katariya is not your ordinary kid in the neighborhood. Kids of his age might be playing hide-and-seek or tag outside, and even immersing themselves in computer video games. Kautilya, however, has a strange interest for his young age.

Katariya is an Indian child prodigy who already has a grasp in computer programming. He became the world's recognized youngest coder last year when he was still a six-year-old genius. The Guinness Book of World Record hailed him as the youngest child to receive an AI certification from the IBM, Eye Rys reported.

Now in his seventh year as a computer wizard, Katariya still continues to impress a lot of people with his 'inhuman' intelligence in doing coding works.

At first, you might think of the mental torture that Katariya underwent, only to absorb all the learning from several programming books that he had read. While it suggests that people see that as a fast way to be worn out easily, Katariya considers the numbers and codes as his 'best friends.'

In a report by Suzanne Humphries of Review Geek, Kautilya's father, Ishwari Katariya, said that his son really took his time through learning several technological applications at home during the COVID-19 lockdown and holidays in England. Kautilya managed to create his own website and even his own game.

"We were looking for some structured and well-defined computing and AI courses available for free, and IBM's courses matched all those criteria," Ishwari told about Kautilya.

Kautilya began tinkering with just few programming languages like Python, Java Script and HTML. Out of the three coding languages, Kautilya formed a bond with Python which later became the apple of his eye because he truly loves to engage in machine learning and AI building.

In only seven months, Kautilya already finished his Python learning before earning his certifications and his Guinness World Record at the same time in November 2020.

Kautilya sought peace in mastering professional computer coding since IBM's free courses offered a lot of available learning space. While a verified certification costs $99, it is more than worth it to take it. If you are pursuing a full-time coding-related job in the future, it will increase your job prospect and will highlight your achievement on top of other applicants.

Currently, Kautilya is not yet finished with his track on AI learning. He is now pursuing two more courses from IBM to earn his next Applied AI professional certification. Mentorship with another child prodigy Tanmay Bakshi is one of Kautilya's plans to further enhance his developer skills in the future.
Other Indian kid prodigies

At this point, you are wondering if Kautilya Katariya's intelligence is uncommon in India. In reality, India became a nest of child prodigies besides him and Bakshi.

Abhigya Anand is the youngest astrologer who predicted COVID-19. Kautilya Pandit is another alpha geek who won on Kaun Banega Crorepati, India's version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" at the age of six.

Meanwhile, Licypriya Kangujam was the youngest speaker in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Lydian Nadhaswaram is a music intellectual who already master piano-playing while Samaira Mehta is already a founder of CoderBunnyz who loves coding.

In the world of sports, Pooja Bishnoi triumphed in athletics even she's only eight years old. Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, on the other hand, was the world's youngest chess grandmaster at the age of 12.

Still, we are wondering how India molds their children to be the best in every area - of either intelligence or physicality.

Source: techtimes.com/articles/256513/20210130/meet-kautilya-katariya-seven-year-old-genius-who-now-worlds.htm

Skills needed for future job market

India finds itself at a unique advantage when compared to other nations due to its young population. However, a young population is both an opportunity as well as a problem depending on how the advantage is utilised to boost the economy. The rapidly growing population indicates the urgent need for skill development in order to enable the growing population to have meaningful employment. An education that places an emphasis on imparting skills over rote learning and memorisation is necessary to ensure that the youth are gainfully employed.

For India to maintain its stature of being the largest provider of skilled programmers and technologists, we will have to ensure that its populace is skilled accordingly so as to remain competitive in the global arena. What follows are five important skills that will continue to be in high demand in the Indian job market in the years to come.

CODING

Coding or programming in languages such as Javascript or Python has consistently been a skill that is in high demand. Many companies in the past few years have produced both hardware and software that feature augmented reality and machine learning. Individuals who possess the skills required to create, design and refine applications that make the most of these technologies and application programming interfaces, will be able to consistently secure rewarding employment.

MACHINE LEARNING

Machine learning (ML) being a branch of Artificial Intelligence (AI), has proved itself to be one of the most important technological developments in the last few years as it facilitates algorithms and programes to continually learn and improve their efficiency with time. Individuals possessing a sound understanding of machine learning will ensure that they become integral components of both emerging and established corporations.

MOBILE DEVELOPMENT

Companies are constantly in need of mobile applications that make their product or service accessible to the growing target audience. An exciting direction in which mobile applications are currently headed in is integrating technologies such as augmented reality like Pokémon Go. Applications such as these blend elements from the environment around users making the content appearing on screen more engaging.

SEO/SEM

Companies are constantly on the lookout for individuals with digital marketing skills in order to be able to better their presence and visibility across the internet. This skill has an obvious advantage as greater exposure to users across the internet would result in more customers and thus revenue.

CYBER-SECURITY SPECIALISTS

It is no surprise that cybersecurity and information security are one of the highest paying and most wanted skillsets. Ransomware attacks such as WannaCry along with hardware vulnerabilities that were exhibited in MeltdownandSpectrehave become the new norm in modern society. As the world continues its reliance on outsourcing services such as cloud computing providers, coupled with internal networks that are vulnerable, the need for businesses to staff a skilled security team is of utmost importance.

These emerging skillsets will be evolving at an exponential pace and wrapping one’s head around them to stay ahead of the curve is essential. A young population can only become an asset if sufficient job opportunities are created and the youth is skilled enough to meet the aspirations of the populace.

The government has struck the right cords with ‘Skill India’ and ‘Make in India’ as well as providing the policy framework under ‘Ease of Doing Business’. However, a lot more needs to be done if we are to fully utilise youth potential. With focus on acquiring the required skillsets, the possibilities that lie before a youthful India are unlimited.

(The author is founder of Indian Institute of Digital Education)

Source: The Time of India dated March 4, 2019