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NIELIT, an autonomous society under MeitY, launched CYBER KUSHTI 2026 on 15 August 2026 - a national hackathon on cybersecurity and artificial intelligence.
It is open to Indian students and independent researchers aged 16 and above, in teams of three, with free registration from 15 August to 10 September 2026.
The three rounds are named Akhada (online, 15 September), Dangal (online, 24 September) and Kesari (in person, 9 October at the Dr Ambedkar International Centre, New Delhi).
It is co-organised with the ISAC Foundation under the National Security Database, with CERT-In as knowledge partner, and is linked to the 3rd National Conference on Cyber Security, Digital Forensics and Intelligence.
Level 1, 'Akhada' - online. Teams analyse and correct a deliberately flawed Security Assessment Package mixing genuine findings with false AI-generated ones
Level 2, 'Dangal' - online, for the top 50 teams, testing adversarial reasoning; ten finalists emerge
Level 3, 'Kesari' - in person at the Dr Ambedkar International Centre, New Delhi, where finalists defend their technical decisions on stage
Valedictory ceremony at the same venue
National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology - digital skilling, electronics and IT education
India's national nodal agency for cyber security incident response; knowledge partner for the hackathon
Runs the Information Sharing and Analysis Center model for exchanging cyber threat information among stakeholders, and the National Security Database
General Awareness > Science and Technology > Cyber security
General Awareness > Cyber security and digital India
General Awareness > Current Events
GS Paper 3 > Science and Technology; internal security and cyber security
Indian Computer Emergency Response Team, the national nodal agency for cyber security incident response, under the Information Technology Act, 2000.
Information Sharing and Analysis Center - a model for sharing cyber threat intelligence among organisations in a sector.
A compiled set of security findings on a system; in round one, teams must separate genuine findings from AI-generated false ones.