PNN
Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], July 4: The GO-BRICS India-Russia Energy-o-thon 2026, described by its organisers as the world's first BRICS nations hackathon, was launched today in a virtual opening ceremony, setting thousands of engineering students from India and Russia onto a single, concrete problem: how to keep a power-short industrial grid running with the help of artificial intelligence.
The event was initiated by the GO-BRICS Business Forum and coordinated in India by the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology (RGIPT), an Institute of National Importance established under an Act of Parliament. It is built around the theme "AI and Digital Technologies in Energy for Advancing the ESG Agenda."
The challenge
At launch, participants received the qualifying problem statement, "AI Dispatcher for the Energy Transition: Balancing Production and ESG under Uncertainty." The scenario asks teams to use AI to manage a 90 MW power deficit in a hybrid industrial energy system without breaching its sustainability constraints. Teams collaborate on the DION digital platform across an intensive 72-hour window, taking the problem from modelling through to a workable approach.
A pan-India, pan-Russia field
The qualifying round drew more than 17,000 registrations from across India, with participants coming from the IITs, NITs, IIITs and other leading engineering institutions. Organisers also reported over 40 percent women participants, a notable share for an energy and technology competition. On the Russian side, students joined from institutions including Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, Moscow Polytechnic University and the Almetyevsk Higher School of Oil, many of them working in mixed India-Russia teams across time zones and languages.
How the competition is structured
The Energy-o-thon runs as a three-stage contest. The online qualifying round narrows the field to the top 60 teams, who advance to offline semi-finals in India. The strongest teams then earn a fully sponsored place at the grand finale in Russia, with one of the final stages planned to coincide with the BRICS Heads of State Summit.
Solutions built to be used
According to the organisers, what sets the format apart is the depth of what comes back. With hundreds of teams attacking the same brief independently and in parallel, the qualifying round produced not only concept pitches but worked solutions, many of them accompanied by mathematical and economic models, payback calculations and implementation scenarios. The result, organisers said, is a spectrum of approaches to a single industrial problem rather than a single answer.
The judging panel
Entries are evaluated by a panel drawn from India's technology and startup community. The judges assess each team on the technical merit, feasibility and real-world applicability of its solution before deciding which teams advance.
Sahil Dhull is the Founder and CEO of Kyra (AGI Interfaces) and a CS major from IIT Kanpur. His previous startup was backed by a16z Speedrun, and has worked on Human Computer Interaction and Machine Learning research at Adobe Research.
Shivam Bhatia is the Founder and CEO of Clinsight AI and prev co-founder at Lunabill (YC F25), with prior experience at BharatPe. His background in AI, enterprise systems, and product engineering brings a strong practical perspective to evaluating real-world innovation.
Rounak Adhikary is the CEO of ProjectX (YC P26) and an entrepreneur with strong global exposure across startup ecosystems. Associated with Stanford ASES, Draper University, and IIT Bombay, he brings a strategic perspective on building and scaling impactful ventures.
Bishal Karmakar is the CTO of ProjectX (YC P26) and a technology and infrastructure specialist with experience at Founders Inc. His expertise in scalable systems and modern tech architecture enables him to effectively evaluate innovative and execution-ready solutions.
Sourya Majumder is the COO of ProjectX (YC P26) and a growth-focused operator with experience at Founders Inc. Specializing in operations and growth strategy, he brings valuable insight into market viability and scalability of solutions.
Between them, the panel brings hands-on experience in AI systems, enterprise software and the building of early-stage products, which is the lens through which the participants' solutions are weighed.
Organisers and academic backing
The initiative is led by Ms. Purnima Anand, President of the BRICS International Forum, with institutional support in India from Prof. Harish Hirani, Director of RGIPT. Its technical vision was presented by Mr. Victor Kokushkin and Dr. Akash Yadav. The academic foundation is anchored by RGIPT faculty, among them Dr. Susham Biswas, co-convenor of the Energy-o-thon, along with Dr. Milan Kumar, Dr. Debashis Panda and Prof. Amit Ranjan, whose research spans energy storage, sustainable energy conversion and advanced materials.
A widening India-Russia partnership
Organisers and invited dignitaries described the Energy-o-thon as more than a competition, presenting it as a recurring platform for scientific and technological cooperation between India and Russia. The GO-BRICS Business Forum and RGIPT have signalled plans to extend the model to other BRICS nations in future editions.
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