NIC, IEEE and Oracle Join Hands to Incubate New Ideas for a Better India

by | Oct 19, 2020

Indian Technology Sector, India's Digital Economy, game-changers, NASSCOM, India, Indian IT

Building on the guidance received from the Prime Minister of India and under the aegis of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India, National Informatics Centre (NIC), IEEE and Oracle today announced a virtual hackathon, Gov-TechThon 2020 (October 30 – November 1, 2020), to incubate new ideas, boost innovation and use technology in agriculture and allied sectors.

Gov-TechThon 2020 will be facilitated by IEEE Computer Society, a trusted voice for engineering, computing and technology information. IEEE is the world’s largest technical professional organization, dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity.

The virtual hackathon is open to students, working professionals, startups, freelance technologists, faculty, and IT services firms in India. Shortlisted teams will operate virtually. During the hackathon, they will receive mentorship and advice from domain experts from NIC, IEEE Computer Society, Oracle and experts from the Ministry of Agriculture, Education and Transportation – Government of India. Registrations for Gov-TechThon 2020 are open.

Participating teams will have access to the latest tools from Oracle, including Oracle Autonomous Database, built-in and easy-to-use cloud security, and compute – to help them develop prototypes that are practical and scalable. Additionally, they will be able to leverage open source technologies that bring in benefits of high performance, reliability and data security.

For Gov-TechThon 2020, NIC has shortlisted five key problem scenarios in collaboration with the Ministries:

  1. AI-based crop recommendations: This aims to help farmers get their crop rotation planning right and improve yields and profitability.
  2. Blockchain-based seed certification: This aims to ensure quality check throughout the supply chain of seed distribution via track and trace and audit capabilities so that farmers are provided with the best quality seeds for improved yields.
  3. Automated vigilance in exams/tests: This aims to support educational institutes manage unsupervised tests. It is intended to minimize the need for invigilators/examiners/supervisors to travel to (or be physically present in) multiple locations by enabling remote monitoring/observation.
  4. Automated fitness check process for commercial vehicles: This aims to curb malpractices among commercial vehicle checks and improve assessment time and vehicle owner experience.
  5. Easy document uploads: This aims to permit citizens to quickly and efficiently scan and submit necessary documents while availing of different government services.

Announcing the hackathon, Dr. Neeta Verma, Director General, NIC, said, “We realise how technology, including cloud and open source, can play an important role in supporting India’s core economic sectors and its communities. For example, to elevate the quality of life for farmers and to ensure increased returns for their produce, we have been pushing for increased use of technology in Indian agriculture. We are hopeful that Gov-TechThon 2020 will spur some new ideas that we can implement in the near future.”

Harish Mysore, Senior Director and Head of IEEE India Operations said, “IEEE has been empowering engineers for over a century, helping advance technology across sectors. This partnership with NIC and Oracle will help increase the use of technology, reduce the digital divide in agriculture, transportation and education and will help us deliver better governance to citizens of India.”

Shailender Kumar, Regional Managing Director, Oracle India, said “To transform India into a digital and knowledge economy, we must first digitally empower all its people, key economic sectors and allied communities. We are proud to join hands with NIC and IEEE for Gov-TechThon 2020 and look forward to supporting local innovation in all key areas identified.”

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Brian Pereira
Brian Pereira
Brian Pereira is an Indian journalist and editor based in Mumbai. He founded Digital Creed in 2015. A technology buff, former computer instructor, and software developer, Brian has 29 years of journalism experience (since 1994). Brian is the former Editor of CHIP India, InformationWeek India and CISO Mag. He has served India's leading newspaper groups: The Times of India and The Indian Express. Presently, he serves the Information Security Media Group, as Sr. Director, Editorial. You'll find his most current work on CIO Inc. During his career he wrote (and continues to write) 5000+ technology articles. He conducted more than 450 industry interviews. Brian writes on aviation, drones, cybersecurity, tech startups, cloud, data center, AI/ML/Gen AI, IoT, Blockchain etc. He achieved certifications from the EC-Council (Certified Secure Computer User) and from IBM (Basics of Cloud Computing). Apart from those, he has successfully completed many courses on Content Marketing and Business Writing. He recently achieved a Certificate in Cybersecurity (CC) from the international certification body ISC2. Follow Brian on Twitter (@creed_digital) and LinkedIn. Email Brian at: [email protected]
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