Govt launches 24-hour hackathon in 7 cities to give startups a boost

The government on Tuesday launched a nationwide hackathon, #OpenGovDataHack, Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said in the national capital, New Delhi.

As part of the Startup Ecosystem Development programme, the National Informatics Centre and Internet and Mobile Association of India have collaborated to conduct #OpenGovDataHack across seven states.

The programme aims to support and showcase potentially great ideas or talent from inner India by reaching out to their own state/city (seven cities), an official statement said.

The seven cities are Jaipur, Chennai, Noida, Bhubaneswar, Patna, Hyderabad, and Surat.

It is to enable them to see their ideas developed into apps/infographics primarily by use of Open Government Data around the themes of drinking water and sanitation, transport, education, crime, and health to a stage, after which they can be evaluated by the jury and be selected for prizes and future support/funding," the statement added.

The minister said:

"The government is committed to making the best use of big data in establishing rules of precision governance. While doing so, every care would be taken to ensure that strict privacy rights of individuals are protected. However, the unauthorised use of data would be dealt with an iron hand to ensure that nothing comes in the way of making data analytics a national movement."

"Big data analytics should focus on the poor and underprivileged and facilitate inclusive growth. While aiming at taking the lead in data analytics it must be ensured that technology is inclusive, affordable, transformative, and developmental. #OpenGovDataHack, being taken up in seven states, would catalyse further startup movement. I would like to assure you all that the government is determined to handhold successful startups and make them a big success," Prasad added.

Workshops will be organised on stakeholder sensitisation, identifying problem statements, and data gathering in the respective cities. The statement said students, startups, academia, and industry can participate.

With inputs from IANS.

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