NITI Aayog’s global mobility hackathon draws 7,500 entries from 20-plus countries

NITI Aayog which launched MoveHack, a global mobility hackathon to crowdsource solutions aimed at the future of mobility in India, has received a robust response. The government’s premiere think-tank body says that it has received strong interest from across the globe. The hackathon,  launched on August 1, 2018, has so far received more than 7,500 registrations for the 10 themes.

MoveHack aims to bring about innovative, dynamic and scalable solutions to problems pertaining to mobility and transportation. The hackathon has a two-pronged campaign approach:
(a) ‘Just Code It’: aimed at solutions through innovations in technology/product/software and data analysis, and
(b) ‘Just Solve It’: innovative business ideas or sustainable solutions to transform mobility infrastructure through technology.

NITI Aayog says in addition to the prize money, what sets this hackathon apart is that it provides a unique opportunity for end-to-end integration of solutions in smart cities, states and central ministries through commercial implementation. The problem themes include multimodal commuter mobility in cities, multimodal freight handling and transportation, road safety and future of mobility among others.

The hackathon as of date has received more than 7,500 individuals and more than 3,000 teams have registered for the hackathon across the 10 themes of ‘Just Code It’ and ‘Just Solve It’.

For ‘Just Code It’, road safety, multimodal commuter mobility in cities and artificial intelligence for Indian transport infrastructure have been the most popular themes, while technology for Pune smart city mobility challenges and solutions for the electric revolution have received maximum interest in ‘Just Solve it’.

NITI Aayog says in terms of registrations the millennials have dominated the interest received so far, with most interest seen from the 18–25 age group. Among the global participants, USA, UK, Israel and Singapore are leading the registration charts.

The top submissions for MoveHack will get an opportunity to sharpen their solutions at an exclusive and curated two-day mentoring workshop and will get the opportunity to learn from the experiences of the thought leaders of the best performing smart cities globally. The Jury for the finals, to be held in New Delhi, will comprise of the top policy makers, venture capitalists and business leaders focused on mobility solutions for India.

The mentors and jury for the hackathon include Nandan Nilekani (co-founder and chairman of Infosys); Deep Kalra (founder and CEO, MakeMyTrip.com); Debjani Ghosh (president, NASSCOM); Dr Dennis Ong (distinguished architect and head of architecture and systems engineering at Verizon), Mohandas Pai (former CFO and board member at Infosys); CP Gurnani (CEO and MD of Tech Mahindra) and Ms Nivruti Rai (country head for Intel India).

Also read: NITI Aayog launches global hackathon to crowdsource future mobility solutions for India