If you searched "ai for bharat hackathon" expecting one official page to land on, that's not quite how this one works. At least three separate hackathons, run by three unrelated organizations, are currently using "AI for Bharat" or something close to it as their name. Two of them are actually finished. Only one has a door open right now. Here's how to tell them apart without wasting time on a closed registration form.
The one you can still enter: Code for a Billion
Code for India launched Code for a Billion (Bharat Agentic-AI Hackathon 2026) on 15 August 2026, India's 80th Independence Day, and it's a 90-day, fully virtual event running through 15 November 2026, with winners announced 5 December 2026. If today's date falls inside that window, this is the AI for Bharat-adjacent hackathon that's actually accepting entries.
It's built around agentic AI, not generic app-building, and every registered participant gets a free allocation of smart-code tokens on AgentFoundry.me, the AI-native IDE the whole event runs on. Projects get judged on real deployment, not a pitch deck, so you need something running on a live cloud endpoint by the deadline, not just a demo video.
There are four impact tracks: Education & Literacy, Health & Wellbeing, Climate & Sustainability, and Governance. The confirmed prize pool is ₹18 lakh, on top of sponsor-specific recognition awards ("Best Use of AgentFoundry Agents," "Best xSpan CareHub Integration") and a fast-track into Code for India's own open-source incubation for standout teams. Entry is free, and despite the India-focused branding, Code for India has said participation isn't restricted by location, since the whole thing runs virtually and judging looks at what you shipped, not where you shipped it from. You can register directly at codeforindia.org/hackathon.
The one that already closed: AI for Bharat (PAN IIT / AWS)
This is the other big contender for the name, and it's likely what a lot of the "AI for Bharat hackathon" search volume was originally about. It was co-presented by the PAN IIT Bangalore Alumni Association and the Government of Karnataka, run on the Hack2skill platform, with AWS providing cash prizes, mentorship, and cloud credits. A second iteration, sometimes listed as "AI for Bharat Hackathon 2.0," narrowed its problem statements toward gov-tech challenges including work tied to the CRPF.
The structure: separate Student and Professional tracks, an online preliminary round, and a grand finale at the PanIIT Bangalore Summit, held 15-16 May 2026 with the main summit day on 16 May. Registration for the 2.0 round closed 7 May 2026. The prize pool was the largest of the three at INR 40 lakh, split across both tracks, alongside AWS mentorship and hands-on cloud/Gen-AI workshops with completion certificates. Problem statements spanned six areas: AI for Learning & Developer Productivity, Media & Digital Experiences, Communities & Public Impact, Retail & Market Intelligence, Healthcare & Life Sciences, and Rural Innovation & Sustainable Systems.
If you're reading this after May 2026, this edition is done. PAN IIT alumni chapters have kept up an annual hackathon-into-summit cadence, so a next edition tied to a future PanIIT summit is a reasonable bet, but nothing about its timing has been announced yet.
Smaller events borrowing the same name
A few other things surface under near-identical names and are worth ruling out rather than confusing yourself with:
- CodeSrijan 2026, hosted by JUET Guna, billed itself as a "national hackathon on AI for Bharat" and ran 16-19 April 2026. It's a college-organized event, unaffiliated with either of the two above.
- Hack2skill's own AI for Bharat event page and the AI For Bharat community spaces on AWS Builder Center are tied to the PAN IIT/AWS program above, not separate hackathons of their own, they're the program's official hub and community, so don't treat a fresh listing there as a new event unless it names new dates.
Which one is actually worth your time
If you want a hackathon you can enter today, it's Code for a Billion, full stop, since it's the only one of these still open. If you're specifically chasing the bigger prize pool and the PAN IIT/AWS branding, you're too late for this cycle and your move is to watch for whenever the next PanIIT summit gets announced. And if a professor or club just told you about "an AI for Bharat hackathon" without more context, ask them which organizer they mean before you sink a weekend into the wrong one, since at this point the name alone tells you almost nothing.
Sources for this page: Code for India's official hackathon page and registration page, the ANI/The Print launch announcement, Internshala's listing for the Bharat Agentic-AI Hackathon, the Hack2skill AI for Bharat event page, Internshala's PanIIT AI for Bharat Hackathon 2.0 listing, and coverage of the PanIIT Bangalore Summit 2026. The exact full list of CRPF-specific problem statements for AI for Bharat 2.0 wasn't consistently published across sources, so it's left out rather than guessed at.
FAQ
- Is the AI for Bharat hackathon still open for registration right now?
- It depends which one you mean. Code for India's Code for a Billion (Bharat Agentic-AI Hackathon 2026) is open now, it runs 15 August to 15 November 2026 with rolling registration at codeforindia.org/hackathon. The PAN IIT Bangalore / Government of Karnataka / AWS event called AI for Bharat already closed, registration ended 7 May 2026 and the finale was held at the PanIIT Bangalore Summit on 16 May 2026. If you found this page after May 2026, that one is done.
- Which AI for Bharat hackathon has the bigger prize pool?
- The PAN IIT / AWS AI for Bharat hackathon offered a larger headline number, INR 40 lakh split across Student and Professional tracks, but it's already over. Code for a Billion, the one still running, has a confirmed INR 18 lakh prize pool plus sponsor recognition awards, with winners announced 5 December 2026.
- Do I need to be a student to enter?
- No, not for the hackathon that's currently open. Code for a Billion is explicitly open to students, working professionals, and independent developers, solo or in teams, with no location restriction. The PAN IIT AI for Bharat event did run separate Student and Professional tracks, so it wasn't student-only either, but again, that one has already closed.
- Is Code for a Billion only for participants based in India?
- No. Despite the 'Bharat' branding and the India-focused problem areas, Code for India has stated the hackathon is open to participants anywhere, since it's fully virtual and judged on deployed projects rather than in-person presence. The impact tracks (education, health, climate, governance) are aimed at Indian use cases, but your location isn't a filter.
- What do I actually need to build for Code for a Billion?
- A deployed agentic AI project, not just a slide deck, aimed at one of four impact tracks: Education & Literacy, Health & Wellbeing, Climate & Sustainability, or Governance. Every registered participant gets a free allocation of tokens on AgentFoundry.me, the AI-native IDE the event is built around, and judging is based on real-world deployment, impact, and technical execution rather than a pitch alone.