Bengaluru, July 27: Canara Bank successfully concluded Canara Suraksha 2.0, its Cyber Hackathon 2026, with a grand valedictory ceremony held at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru. The hackathon, which commenced in May 2026, brought together students from engineering institutions across India to develop innovative technology solutions for pressing challenges in banking security.
The hackathon invited student teams from across India to work on three problem statements of high relevance to the banking industry: Detection of Spurious Gold, Real-Time Anomaly Detection, and Document Forgery Detection.
The response to the hackathon was overwhelming. A total of 1,560 teams participated in the Idea Phase, presenting innovative solutions to the identified problem statements. Following the evaluation of the ideas, 130 teams were shortlisted for the Demo Phase. The shortlisted teams were provided approximately one month to develop working prototypes and demonstrations, with mentorship and guidance from experts and technical teams of Canara Bank.
Following the Demo Phase, nine finalist teams were shortlisted and invited to Bengaluru to participate in the final round. During the final round, the teams presented their solutions before an eminent jury and senior dignitaries. After evaluating the presentations and demonstrations, five teams were finally shortlisted to present their solutions at the valedictory ceremony held at IISc Bengaluru.
The valedictory ceremony was graced by Shri A. K. Goel, Chief Executive, Indian Banks’ Association, as the Chief Guest, and Smt. Sailaja Rani, General Manager, Reserve Bank of India, as the Honorary Guest. The event was presided over by Shri Brajesh Kumar Singh, MD & CEO, Canara Bank, in the presence of Executive Directors of Canara Bank, Shri Hardeep Singh Ahluwalia and Shri Sunil Kumar Chugh.
The event also witnessed the participation of industry leaders and Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) representing Deloitte, KPMG, EY, Palo Alto Networks, Check Point, HP, and OpenText.
The distinguished jury comprised Prof. Govindarajan, Prof. Vinod Ganapathy, along with technical experts from Canara Bank. The finalist solutions were evaluated on the basis of innovation, technical depth, scalability, and practical applicability to real-world banking scenarios.
The entire hackathon initiative, from its conceptualisation and launch to the evaluation rounds and final event, was conducted under the active supervision and guidance of Shri A. Ramesh Babu, Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), Canara Bank, with the coordinated efforts of the Cyber Security Wing and various stakeholders of the Bank.