India hosts first-ever green cement and infrastructure hackathon

India’s first national hackathon centred on sustainable innovation in cement and construction, “CemHack for Green Infra”, was introduced by DPIIT. The NCB-hosted event in Ballabgarh encourages entrepreneurship and green technology solutions.

On May 20, 2025, Shri Sanjiv, Joint Secretary, DPIIT, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, launched the first-ever national-level hackathon themed “CemHack for Green Infra” at the National Council for Cement and Building Materials (NCB) in Ballabgarh.

Speaking at the event, Shri Sanjiv commended the NCB Incubation Centre on completing its first year and praised the initiative to foster innovation in the cement and construction industries. He encouraged prestigious colleges, including IITs, NITs, and regional technical universities, to join, expressing hope that the hackathon would provide exciting entrepreneurial success stories.

The NCB Incubation Centre (NCB-IC) is hosting the hackathon, intending to offer a broad platform to encourage entrepreneurship and the commercialisation of grassroots innovations in the construction, cement, and related industries. Dr. Kapil Kukreja, GM & In-charge, NCB-IC, discussed the two-track competition—one for startups, professionals, and individuals, and the other for students and academia—which focuses on solving real-world problems in the cement sector. Participation is free of charge.

Green Cement, Green Process, Green Concrete, Carbon Capture and Storage, Logistics & Supply Chain, and Net Zero objectives are among the hackathon themes. NCB-IC offers cash awards of up to ₹1 lakh, as well as incubation or mentorship possibilities. NCB, which is part of DPIIT, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, is India’s leading R&D organisation for cement and building materials, with competence ranging from raw materials to structural rehabilitation.

Dr L P Singh, Director General of the NCB, emphasised the hackathon’s relevance in promoting sustainability and highlighted recent achievements, such as a DST-funded CCU testbed project with IIT Roorkee and JK Cement Ltd. He announced the creation of a Centre of Excellence for CCU at NCB.

Prof. K K Pant, Director of IIT Roorkee; Shri Neeraj Akhoury, Chairman of NCB and MD of Shree Cement Ltd.; and Dr. L P Singh, Director General of NCB, all attended the ceremony. Participants at the event included research academics, students, industry leaders, and NCB scientists.

For more details, visit: https://www.ncbindia.com/cemhack.php.