Bank of Baroda and IIT Gandhinagar Will Collaborate to Host a Hackathon in 2026

News Desk. News Nation 360: The Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar and Bank of Baroda have teamed up to introduce Hackathon 2026. Under the direction of the Department of Financial Services (DFS) and the Indian Banks' Association (IBA), the bank inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Centre (IIEC) of IIT Gandhinagar as part of the larger PSB Hackathon Series 2026. "Identity Trust, Protection & Safety" is a crucial cybersecurity and fraud problem statement that the open innovation platform asks students and alumni to address. Participants are tasked with creating a risk-based, privacy-focused Identity Trust architecture that can consistently verify company and consumer identities across digital platforms. In order to initiate real-time verification only when increased risk is detected, the system must intelligently identify high-risk events, such as unusual user behaviour, the use of new devices, suspicious onboarding or account recovery efforts, and misuse of privileged access. The framework's ultimate goal is to lower insider abuse, account takeover occurrences, and KYC fraud while guaranteeing safe, scalable, and friction-optimised digital access as transaction volumes increase. Prof. Rajat Moona, Director of IIT Gandhinagar, emphasised the important chance for participants to apply technical expertise to real-world industry challenges, while Shri Sanjay V Mudaliar, Executive Director of Bank of Baroda, stressed the importance of strengthening identity trust for future-ready banking. A number of evaluation and mentoring phases will be included in the hackathon, which will culminate in a grand finale presentation in front of a prestigious panel of professionals in academia, technology, and banking.

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