PSBs Hackathon Series 2026
presents
Ai – CSPARC
AI Powered Innovation for Customer: Security, Privacy, Assurance, Reliance, Convenience
Digital Trust | Ease of doing Business
Promoting Innovation and Fostering Collaboration
About
About iDEA 2.0
India's most premier Hackathon organized by Union Bank of India
Our Mission
To empower the next generation of tech in finance innovators by providing a platform to build production-ready solutions that address real-world banking challenges.
The Community
Join 350+ teams from top engineering colleges across India in a collaborative environment that fosters innovation, learning, and growth.
Industry Recognition
Winners get to showcase their innovations at the prestigious Global Fintech Fest, gaining exposure to industry leaders and potential investors.
Rewards & Prizes
Compete for a prize pool of ₹13 Lakhs, along with mentorship opportunities and potential internship offers from Union Bank of India.
Rewards
Prize Pool & Benefits
Total cash prize pool of ₹13,00,000 , with exclusive benefits including mentorship, internship opportunities, and a showcase at Global FinTech Fest 2026.
Total Prize Pool
Winner
₹5,00,000
1st Runner-Up
₹3,00,000
2nd Runner-Up
₹2,00,000
Consolation
₹1,00,000
All Women Team
₹1,00,000
PwD Team
₹1,00,000
Prize money is disbursed in three instalments to ensure sustained involvement of students, institutes, and banks throughout the product development lifecycle.
On the day of the Grand Finale
50%On the day / After completion of Global FinTech Fest
30%Upon successful completion of product development
20%Forfeiture of Deferred Prize Amount
If a prize-winning team fails to complete the agreed post-hackathon milestones within the stipulated timeframe, or withdraws without prior written approval of the Bank, the remaining 50% of the deferred prize amount shall stand forfeited. The forfeited amount may, at the Bank's sole discretion, be reallocated to another eligible team. All rights shall vest exclusively with the Bank.
Expert Mentorship
Guidance from industry leaders and Union Bank executives throughout your journey
Internship Opportunities
Top performers receive internship opportunities from Union Bank and partner organizations
GFF Showcase
Present your solution at Global Fintech Fest 2026 to industry leaders and global investors
Pre-Hackathon Workshops
Exclusive training on fintech APIs, cloud platforms, and development best practices
Winner's Opportunity
Global Fintech Fest 2026
The Global Fintech Fest (GFF) is India's largest and most prestigious fintech conference, bringing together innovators, industry leaders, policymakers, and investors from around the world. Winners of iDEA 2.0 get an exclusive opportunity to showcase their solutions on this global platform — gaining unparalleled exposure and networking opportunities with key decision-makers in the fintech ecosystem.
Present your innovation to potential investors, partners, and customers at one of the most influential fintech events globally.
Timeline
Event Schedule
Your journey from registration to victory
FEB 23
FEB 23
Phase 1
Registration Opens
Team registration begins. Form your squad of 4 and secure your spot in the hackathon.
MAR 22
MAR 22
Registration Closes & Idea Submission Deadline
Final day to register and submit your innovative solutions for banking challenges.
TBA
TBA
Screening & Evaluation of Entries
Expert jury reviews and evaluates all submitted ideas based on innovation, feasibility, and impact.
TBA
TBA
Shortlisted Teams Announced
Shortlisted teams move forward to prototype development phase.
TBA
TBA
To Be Announced
Phase 2
Detailed schedule for Phase 2 will be announced soon. Stay tuned for updates.
TBA
TBA
To Be Announced
Phase 3
Detailed schedule for Phase 3 will be announced soon. Stay tuned for updates.
TBA
TBA
To Be Announced
Phase 4 - Grand Finale
Final hackathon dates and venue details will be announced soon. Get ready for the ultimate showdown!
Challenge
Problem Statements
We have 10 problem statements across Fintech, GenAI, and Cybersecurity domains designed to address real-world challenges in modern banking. Each problem statement offers unique opportunities to innovate and create impactful solutions leveraging AI, analytics, and emerging technologies.
AI Driven Early Warning System for Internal & Privileged User Fraud
Design and develop an AI-powered Early Warning System that continuously monitors the behaviour of internal and privileged users across banking systems (core banking, treasury, loan origination, customer databases, etc.) and flags anomalous or potentially fraudulent activities in real time. The system should leverage machine learning models to establish behavioural baselines for each user and detect deviations such as unusual transaction patterns, off-hours access, bulk data downloads, unauthorized account modifications, or privilege escalation attempts. The solution should provide risk scores, generate alerts with contextual explanations, and offer a dashboard for the fraud investigation team to triage and act on cases efficiently.
Continuous Vendor Monitoring for Risk Management and Compliance
Build an AI-powered Continuous Vendor Monitoring platform that automates the ongoing assessment of third-party vendors across risk dimensions including cybersecurity posture, financial health, regulatory compliance, legal proceedings, negative news, and operational stability. The platform should aggregate data from multiple external sources (news feeds, regulatory filings, financial databases, dark web monitoring, security rating agencies) and internal sources (SLA performance, incident history, audit findings) to generate a real-time risk profile for each vendor. When a material change in risk is detected, the system should automatically alert the appropriate stakeholders and recommend mitigation actions.
Tracking of Funds within Bank for Fraud Detection
Develop an intelligent Fund Flow Tracking system that maps and visualises the end-to-end movement of funds within the bank across accounts, products, branches, and channels. The system should use graph analytics and machine learning to identify suspicious fund flow patterns such as rapid layering through multiple accounts, circular transactions (round-tripping), structuring below reporting thresholds, sudden activation of dormant accounts for high-value transfers, and mismatches between declared customer profiles and actual fund movement behaviour. The solution should enable investigators to trace the complete journey of funds and generate evidence packages for reporting to the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU).
Predictive Customer Outreach for Connection and Retention
Build a Predictive Customer Outreach platform that uses AI/ML models to identify customers at risk of disengagement or attrition well before they take explicit action. The platform should analyse multi-dimensional customer data including transaction frequency and recency, product usage trends, digital engagement patterns, complaint history, life events (e.g., salary changes, relocations), and competitive market signals to generate churn risk scores and segment customers by risk level and reason. Based on the prediction, the system should automatically trigger personalised outreach campaigns through the most effective channel (call, email, SMS, in-app notification, relationship manager visit) with tailored offers, solutions, or engagement actions. The platform should also measure the effectiveness of outreach actions and continuously improve predictions through outcome feedback.
Unified Customer Complaint Communication Dashboard
Design and develop a Unified Customer Complaint Communication Dashboard powered by Gen-AI that aggregates complaints from all channels into a single platform. The system should use NLP and Gen-AI to automatically categorise complaints by type, product, severity, and sentiment; extract key issues; identify duplicate or related complaints; and suggest resolution templates or next-best actions. The dashboard should provide a 360-degree view of each complaint with full communication history, SLA tracking, escalation management, and regulatory reporting capabilities. Gen-AI should also enable automated draft responses for agent review, trend analysis, and root cause identification across complaint data.
Frontline Desk Support in Multilingual Mode Using Gen-AI Voice Assistant
Build a Gen-AI powered Multilingual Voice Assistant that supports frontline bank staff during customer interactions at branches. The assistant should listen to the customer speaking in their preferred language, provide real time translation and transcription for the staff member, and enable the staff member to respond back in the customer's language through AI-generated voice output. Beyond translation, the assistant should understand banking context — recognizing product names, banking jargon, account types, and common queries — to provide accurate and contextually relevant translations. The system should also be able to guide the staff through processes (e.g., account opening, loan enquiry) in the customer's language and generate a bilingual summary of the interaction for records.
AI Enabled Self Service at Branch and Contact Center
Develop an AI-powered Self-Service platform that can be deployed at bank branches (via kiosks or tablets) and integrated into the contact centre (via IVR and voice bot). The platform should use Gen-AI and conversational AI to guide customers through self-service transactions and queries in a natural, intuitive manner supporting multiple languages and accessibility needs. At branches, the solution should include a smart kiosk interface with voice and touch interaction. At contact centres, it should provide an intelligent voice bot that handles routine calls end-to-end and seamlessly escalates complex cases to human agents with full context. The system should authenticate customers securely and integrate with core banking systems to execute transactions.
Omni Channel Customer Communication Digital Platform
Design and build an Omni Channel Customer Communication Digital Platform that provides a unified, consistent, and personalised communication experience across all customer touchpoints. The platform should maintain a single, real-time view of all communications with each customer across every channel, enabling any agent or system to pick up a conversation with full context regardless of the channel. Gen-AI should power intelligent features such as auto-drafting contextual responses, summarising prior conversations for agents, detecting customer intent and sentiment in real time, and ensuring regulatory compliance of outbound communications (e.g., DNC checks, consent management, content approval). The platform should support both transactional and marketing communications with preference management and channel orchestration.
"Zombie" (Stale/Defunct) API Discovery and Defence for Cyber Security
Create an automated Zombie API Discovery and Defence platform that continuously scans the bank's network infrastructure, API gateways, code repositories, and deployment environments to discover all active APIs including undocumented and shadow APIs. The platform should classify each API by status (active, deprecated, orphaned, zombie), assess its security posture (authentication, encryption, rate limiting, data exposure), and provide actionable recommendations for remediation. For confirmed zombie APIs, the system should support automated or assisted decommissioning workflows. The solution must also provide continuous monitoring to detect newly created APIs and prevent future zombie API proliferation.
Using Generative AI for Attack Prediction and Remediation
Build a Generative AI-powered Cyber Defence system that can predict potential attack vectors by analysing the bank's threat landscape, vulnerability data, network topology, and historical incident data and proactively recommend defensive measures before attacks materialise. When an attack or breach is detected, the system should use Gen-AI to automatically generate remediation playbooks, draft incident response procedures, produce root cause analysis reports, and suggest configuration changes or patches. The system should also be capable of simulating attack scenarios (red team simulations) using AI to test the bank's defences and identify gaps.
Organizers
Hackathon Organizers
Join us for an extraordinary hackathon experience, where innovation meets opportunity. Presented by Union Bank and guided by IBA and DFS, this event bridges the gap between academia and industry. In collaboration with Somaiya, and organized by the Computer Society of India (CSI) and Euclid, we're creating a unique platform for you to network, solve complex problems, and shape the future through code and creativity.
Presented By
Under The Guidance Of
In Association With
Organized By
FAQs
Frequently Asked Questions
Find answers to common questions about iDEA 2.0. Need more information?
Highlights
iDEA 2025
Relive the memories from our previous edition
