Google to Mentor Shortlisted Teams Competing to Build MyGov's PMO App

Government citizen-centric web platform MyGov and Google India on Wednesday announced the final shortlisted top five teams from Delhi, Chennai and Pune to build the official mobile app for the Prime Minister's Office (PMO).

This contest, initiated by MyGov and Google in March, is a crowdsourcing effort to build a mobile app for a public office. One app out of the five will be chosen as the official app of the PMO, Google India said.

MyGov CEO Gaurav Dwivedi said: "With the short listing of the finalists, the contest has now entered its last phase of actual app development. The role of Google's team in mentoring will be critical at this stage and we are working closely to unveil of the official mobile app for the Prime Minister's Office."

In the first phase of the contest, MyGov had invited ideas for the mobile app. Based on over 50,000 ideas received, it prepared an app blueprint for developers, who could register as teams to build and submit mockups.

In the second phase, more than 110 mockups were received, and 10 were shortlisted. A jury of eminent professionals and government representatives chose five teams to build the app on the basis of detailed presentations.

The shortlisted teamd come from across the country - two from Chennai, two from NCR, and one from Pune, the statement said.

The shortlisted teams will now be mentored for the next six weeks by Google engineers, who will help them develop a world class app based on the latest design and Android technologies, it added.

"As increasing number of Indians get online with their smartphones, we're delighted to be working with MyGov in an effort to build a world class mobile app for the citizens to connect with the Prime Minister's Office," said Google India's country head public policy Chetan Krishnaswamy.

"Easy access to information and empowering citizens with the benefits of Internet are a big part of Prime Minister Modi's "Digital India" initiative, and this app is one step in that direction," he added.