NITI Aayog launches Move Hack, global mobility hackathon to crowdsource solutions

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NEW DELHI: NITI Aayog has launched Move Hack, a global mobility hackathon to crowdsource solutions aimed at the future of mobility in India. Envisaged to be one of the largest hackathons globally, Move Hack is focused on 10 themes and structured over three legs: online, followed by Singapore leg, and the finals in New Delhi.

Transportation and mobility are emerging as potential drivers of innovation and economic growth of the 21st century. Rapidly evolving technologies and business models for delivering mobility services have dramatic potential to transform the global transportation sector. Mobility that ranges from pedestrian and personal transport to public transit and freight movement is extremely critical and impacts rural and urban daily lives.

Move Hack aims to bring about innovative, dynamic and scalable solutions to problems pertaining to mobility. The hackathon has a two-pronged campaign approach:

(a) “Just Code It”: aimed at solutions through innovations in technology/ product/software and data analysis.

(b) “Just Solve It”: innovative business ideas or sustainable solutions to transform mobility infrastructure through technology.

Move Hack is open to individuals of all nationalities, making it a truly global hackathon. Registrations are open at https://www.movehack.gov.in. The top 30 teams from the online submissions will travel to Singapore for two days (1 and 2 Sep 2018) and will be mentored by a curated group of top experts advising the teams on a host of parameters including design improvement, business viability, technical solution and customer targeting/marketing. The top 20 teams from Singapore leg will participate in the Final Round to be held in New Delhi on 5 and 6 Sep 2018.

The winners will be announced during the Move Summit 2018, which is also organized by NITI Aayog on 7 and 8 Sep 2018 in New Delhi (http://movesummit.in/) and is being inaugurated by the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India. Awards for the hackathon include recognizing top 10 winners, with the total prize of more than Rs. 2 crores.

The hackathon is organized in partnership with the Government of Singapore and is powered by Hacker Earth. PwC is the Knowledge Partner and NASSCOM is the Strategic Partner. The evaluations will be done by the jury comprising of subject matter experts, venture capitalists, business leaders and successful entrepreneurs. Notable leaders who have agreed to serve as Champions for Move Hack include Debjani Ghosh (President, NASSCOM), Nivruti Rai (Country Head, Intel India), Dennis Ong (Distinguished Architect and Head of Architecture & Systems Engineering, Verizon) and P. Anandan (CEO, Wadhwani AI).

Move Hack is expected to unravel pioneering and ingenious solutions to pertinent mobility-related challenges and pave the way for developing integrated, interconnected and inventive global community.

Commenting on the launch, Amitabh Kant, CEO NITI Aayog noted “Move Hack is the first platform in the world which has enmeshed public transport, private transport, road safety, multimodal connectivity, and new age transport technologies such as zero-emission vehicles and intracity aerial transport in a hackathon platform spearheaded by a Government. We want the best minds in India and globally to compete and come up with prototypes and solutions for these challenges. India has some of the most diverse problem contexts in the world. If you can solve for India, you can solve for the world and we will help you get there.”