Union Minister for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Nitin Gadkari has called upon the youth to strive for pursuit of knowledge and its conversion into assets as the development prospects of our country largely depend on the same. <br/><br/>He was speaking at the inaugural ceremony of the grand finale of the world's biggest Smart India Hackathon – 2017 at Ramdeobaba College of Engineering and Management in Nagpur today.<br/><br/>The Minister said that the process of acquiring knowledge includes research, innovation, technology and entrepreneurship. He asked students to take up research projects relating to local conditions which would be helpful in mitigation of problems being faced by the local populace.<br/><br/>The grand finale of the Smart India Hackathon is being held simultaneously at 26 centres all over the country and Nagpur is one of the two centres selected in Maharashtra for this purpose. The 36-hour long exercise is being participated by 84 teams drawn from various states of the country at RCOEM, Nagpur which is also the nodal centre for the Union Ministry of Road Transport, Highways and Shipping.