Union Bank of India announces winners of IDEA 2.0 hackathon in Mumbai

MUMBAI: Innovation took centre stage at Union Bank of India as the lender hosted the grand finale of IDEA 2.0, a pan-India hackathon focused on tackling cybersecurity, fraud prevention and customer experience challenges using generative AI.

The finale was held on September 3 at the K J Somaiya School of Engineering auditorium in Vidyavihar, Mumbai. Union Bank organised the second edition of IDEA in association with Somaiya Vidyavihar University as part of the Public Sector Banks Hackathon Series 2026.

The hackathon is part of an initiative by the Department of Financial Services under the Ministry of Finance and is being steered by the Indian Banks’ Association. The programme aims to encourage innovation and technology-led solutions for the banking, financial services and insurance sector.

IDEA 2.0 received 1,511 entries from across India. Following multiple rounds of evaluation, finalist teams presented solutions spanning artificial intelligence, fintech, cybersecurity, digital trust, customer security, privacy, assurance, reliability and convenience, as well as ease of doing business.

Six teams received recognition across different categories. Syntax_error from IIT Bhilai emerged as the winner, while MoneyLords from IIT Guwahati was named first runner-up and Coded Hearts from IIIT Nagpur secured the second runner-up position. Checkmates from Symbiosis International University was recognised as the all-women team, CloudCompute from VCET Vasai was recognised in the category for a team with a PwD representative, while AI Final Boss from VIT Pune received additional recognition.

The winning teams received cash prizes totalling Rs 13 lakh.

Participants included students from several premier institutions, including IIT Mumbai, IIT Guwahati, IIT Bhilai, IIIT Nagpur, NIT Patna, BITS Ranchi, Maulana Azad NIT Bhopal, Motilal Nehru NIT Prayagraj, Symbiosis International and Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum.

The event brought together senior Union Bank officials, banking and fintech representatives, technology experts, academics and industry leaders, giving young innovators an opportunity to develop solutions for real-world challenges in the BFSI sector.

Union Bank managing director and CEO Asheesh Pandey said the hackathon was aimed not only at identifying promising ideas but also at exploring how they could be developed into practical and scalable solutions for the banking sector.

Pandey said the increasing digitisation of banking makes it important for innovation to advance alongside security, trust, convenience and customer value. He added that the bank would focus on combining artificial intelligence and emerging technologies with human judgement and practical problem-solving.

Union Bank said it remains focused on promoting innovation and developing future-ready solutions for a secure, inclusive and digitally enabled financial ecosystem.