IIT Delhi's Entrepreneurship Development Cell and cybersecurity think tank Cyber Peace are gearing up to host a national-level cybersecurity hackathon from January 16-18.
Titled the eRaksha Hackathon 2026, this 36-hour event is aimed at bringing student innovators from across the country to cook up innovative solutions todigital threats.
It will be part of BECon ’26—the famed institute’s annual entrepreneurship conclave—and will serve as one of the curtain raiser events for the India AI Impact Summit 2026 in February.
Participants will be tested in key areas of modern technology, such as AI and machine learning, threat detection, blockchain, and secure software development.
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The two problem statements this time have focused on using agentic AI to secure home devices connected to the internet and detect deepfakes and false information.
"The Hackathon aims to foster creativity, rapid prototyping, and practical innovation in areas vital to national security and digital trust," the eRaksha Hackathon 2026 website read.
Participants/teams will be evaluated based on criteria like document/brief, the quality of their ideas, and the PowerPoint presentations submitted during registrations.
The top 20 teams (60 participants) will be shortlisted for the final round, after which a special award function will be held on February 10, 2026 at the Bharat Mandapam, exclusively for the winners.
This event ends days before the India AI Impact Summit 2026, that aims to “democratise AI” and bridge the global AI divide, and comes after the Rajasthan Regional AI Impact Conference 2026, held in Jaipur on January 6, 2026.
This year will be the first time that the AI Impact Summit 2026, a global convening to shape the future of inclusive, responsible, and resilient Artificial Intelligence (AI), is hosted in the Global South.