Sashastra Seema Bal wants AI-based tech solution to guard India's borders

Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) and the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) have jointly launched the Hackathon DRISHTI, an initiative to develop low-cost homemade solutions for effective border management.

Participants will have to develop two innovative solutions to detect unauthorised/suspected vehicles and persons and drone-based surveillance along with geospatial mapping of vulnerable areas across the border. 

The SSB wants a solution using AI-based sensors and other electronic devices to identify suspicious persons/vehicles from a database of collected information. The data could be audio, video, image, text, and others. For surveillance of the open borders and vulnerable gaps along the borders and monitoring the encroachments and disputed areas, the SSB needs an easily operable and cost-effective system to take proactive action.

To cater to the needs, MeitY has invited startups, MSME's innovators and research professionals to develop their innovations. The selected participants will get opportunities to create and develop futuristic homeland and internal security technologies with the SSB. 

The Hackathon DRISHTI (Development of Researched Indigenous Solutions Hackathon for Technological Innovations) was launched by MeitY Secretary Ajay Sawhney and SSB DG Kumar Rajesh Chandra in New Delhi. The winner and runner-up for each challenge will be awarded Rs 10 lakh and Rs 5 lakh, respectively. Formed in 1963 after the 1962 Sino-India war, the SSB has been mandated to man the Nepal and Bhutan borders.