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Want to Solve Real-World Finance Problems? 5 hackathons students should explore
From AI and fintech to cybersecurity and investor awareness, financial institutions are creating new platforms for students to solve real-world challenges.
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As technology reshapes banking, investing and financial services, students are getting opportunities to solve problems that go far beyond the classroom.
From AI and fintech to cybersecurity, investor education and digital pensions, institutions such as RBI, SEBI, CDSL, NISM and PFRDA are increasingly turning to young innovators for fresh ideas.
Here are five hackathons and ideathons that give students a chance to work on real-world financial challenges and turn their ideas into practical solutions.
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Securities Market TechSprint, SEBI
For students interested in fintech, AI or capital markets, SEBI’s Securities Market TechSprint, in collaboration with leading market infrastructure institutions and industry bodies, offered something difficult to replicate in a classroom.
The initiative was designed to harness technological talent, including students, for real-world solutions.
Participants could choose between problems such as detecting deepfakes and phishing, translating regulation into operational compliance, creating a unified multi-asset investor app, or simplifying SME IPO documentation.
HaRBInger, RBI
For someone curious about how technology can change banking, RBI’s HaRBInger offered exposure to problems at the frontier of the financial system. Its latest edition asked participants to develop solutions for tokenised KYC, offline CBDC (e ₹) and enhancing trust. RBI offered participants the opportunity to be mentored by industry experts and present before an eminent jury.
The winner across each problem statement will get ₹40 lakh as winning prize. The runner up and all women team will get ₹20 lakh. The stipend for each team shortlisted for solution development phase is ₹5 lakh.
Reimagine Ideathon, CDSL
For students who wanted to work on investor education without necessarily being coders, CDSL’s inaugural Reimagine Ideathon, held as part of its annual Reimagine Symposium, opened the problem statement to multiple disciplines and approaches. It asked participants to ideate around how India learns about, invests in, and grows through the financial markets. Participants could explore solutions through gamification, behavioural nudges, communication, design, technology or community-building, built around the principles of Empowerment, Inclusion and Trust. The format allowed students to develop an idea from concept stage to jury presentations. Finalists presented working prototypes ranging from apps to dashboards, focusing on helping more people become smart and responsible investors.
NISM Ideathon, NISM
For students interested in cybersecurity and investor awareness, NISM Ideathon turned cyber fraud into a practical problem-solving exercise. The initiative sought to promote safe digital financial behaviour, improve awareness of cyber threats and encourage informed participation in financial markets. Full-time UG, PG and PhD students were asked to analyse a real or hypothetical cyber-fraud incident and develop actionable ways to warn investors about red flags, promote responsible digital investing and prevent future frauds.
Innovate4NPS, PFRDA and IIT Kanpur
For students interested in the intersection of fintech, public policy, cybersecurity and large-scale digital systems, Innovate4NPS offered an opportunity to work on solutions with potential real-world application in the pension ecosystem. The four challenges covered digital NPS onboarding and KYC, pension and retirement forecasting, gamified pension awareness and an AI-powered multilingual NPS assistant. The programme was open to students alongside startups, developers and other technology innovators, and selected teams were offered six months of structured mentorship to refine their solutions and develop deployable proofs-of-concept.
