Rajasthan IT Day witnesses 1 lakh participants and lakhs of rupees disbursed to startups

The three-day event offered a platform to individuals from the fields of IT, ITeS, EDSM, and e-governance to showcase their skills and innovation.

The third edition of Rajasthan DigiFest & IT Day conducted by Department of Information Technology & Communication in Jaipur last week saw one lakh participants, including emerging entrepreneurs, business dignitaries, IT professionals, and students. The event aimed to provide a platform to individuals from the fields of IT, ITeS, EDSM, and e-governance to showcase their skills and innovation.

The three-day event was organised at Rajasthan University, Commerce College, IGPRS, and Jawahar Kala Kendra Jaipur over March 18-21, 2018, beginning with a marathon on Sunday evening. It also included various competitions like a quiz programme, a hackathon that saw close to 6,400 participants, and workshops on starting up and scaling, schemes for women entrepreneurs, panel discussions, as well as the IT/Startup Expo.

At the fest, Rs 15 lakh was distributed to startups under Bhamashah TechnoFund and Q-rate Gold card to startups with potential at iStart, the state government's startup incubation programme.

Speakers at the event included Manipal Global Education chairman and investor Mohandas Pai, Unicorn Ventures partner Anil Joshi, Hughes CEO Vinod Sood, KPMG Partner Mohit Bhasin, Frontier Markets Founder and CEO Ajaita Shah, and YourStory Founder and CEO Shradha Sharma.

One of the major attractions at the event was the IT/Startup Expo that gave an opportunity to experience technology and inventions through which the state has seen a new direction towards e-goverance and digital development.

Altogether, more than 50 startups across areas such as IoT, healthcare and smart city showcased their ideas at the Startup Expo and networked with investors and mentors over the course of the IT Day celebrations. There were also panel discussions featuring the who's who of the startup ecosystem, which explored how to market themselves and their products, as well as the challenges startups face.

Four days of celebrations

The event formally began on Sunday, March 18, with a 5.4km marathon run called “TecRush” to promote technology in the state. Around 25,000 people from across the state participated in the marathon, which was flagged off by the chief guest and actor-entrepreneur Suniel Shetty, from the Jawahar Kala Kendra.

A job fair for the youth of the state was also part of the event. Around 27,000 applicants attended the job fair, of which 5,500 have been shortlisted and 2,500 are selected, as per a statement by the government..

In the 4th edition of Hackathon, "Hackathon 4.0" (a non-stop 36-hour coding competition), around 6,400 talented coders, developers, and designers participated by working on various platforms like the Bhamashah, e-Mitra, Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, AR/VR, Blockchain, IOT, Machine Learning, Data Mobility, etc.

The winners of the Hackathon 4.0 were Jalandhar-based AK Pal Robotic, Delhi-based Tech 9, and Bengaluru-based Swift Ace. Each of these winners has won the opportunity to work with the Department of Information Technology and Communication (DoIT&C) for projects worth Rs 32.5 lakh in total.

In addition, to promote and develop the environment sustainability, a 36-hour competition called “Green-a-Thon” saw 800 participants come up with the best "green IT" solutions. The three best solutions have won entry projects with the government, again worth Rs 32.5 lakh.

The two other hackathons, EduHack and e-Mitra/ITGK Hackathon, saw a total of 1,200 participants code to provide the best education and service delivery solutions, respectively.

The winners were felicitated by the Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje on March 21, at the conclusion of the event.