Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday batted for research and innovation, saying it has to be made a "way of living" with increasing acceptance for it in society.

Addressing students at the grand finale of the Smart India Hackathon, he said social and institutional support will boost innovation and new ideas and original thinking should be respected.

Modi said India is making rapid strides by keeping its faith in the young population and noted that its innovation index ranking has gone up.

"The number of patents in the last eight years has gone up by seven times and the count of unicorns has gone beyond 100," he said.

"Smart India Hackathon has become an excellent example of public participation, and the young innovators are the flag-bearers of the "Jai Anusandhan" call made by him on Independence Day," he said.

SIH, which started in 2017, is a nationwide initiative to provide students with a platform to solve the pressing problems of society, organisations, and government. It aims to inculcate the culture of product innovation, problem-solving and out-of-the-box thinking among students.