DST Launches Innovation Challenge to Help Realise 'Digital India' Dream

In association with the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Intel has launched an innovation challenge for academia, entrepreneurs, innovators and startups to realise 'Digital India' dream, officials said on Monday.

'Digital India' is an initiative of the central government to integrate the government departments and the people of India.

The innovation challenge titled 'Innovate for Digital India' intends to find solutions which can enable public to avail government services easily. It is targeted at addressing local needs with the vision to build an ecosystem for pervasive technology adoption.

Top three winners will be entitled to Rs. 20,00,000 seed fund each from the total grant of Rs. 1.5 crores.

"Through this challenge, we aim to encourage people to come forward and participate and create solutions that will help make Digital India a reality," said Narendra Bhandari, director, software and services group, Intel Asia Pacific and Japan.

Apps and technology solutions which have the potential to propel mass adoption of technology are being sought by the organisers.

They include biometric sensing capabilities, peripherals using other sensors, intuitive user interface, gesture recognition and multi-lingual voice support on the platform front.

And, apps with the power to accelerate e-governance services delivery through ekranthi/ mygov app on mobile platform are being solicited.

There is still a log of gap to bridge and achieve the digital vision in India, said Bhandari.

A website has been set up to receive the applications, www.innovatefordigitalindia.intel.in

Winners will get the opportunity to be mentored by industry stalwarts and Intel experts. They will be trained in the technical know-how with access to product kits and infrastructure and commercialization possibilities will be explored.

Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) of IIM-Ahemdabad has been roped in to execute the innovation challenge.

My Gov, an innovative platform to build a partnership between citizens and the government through technology, and DEITY (Department of Electronics and Information Technology) are the other partners of the innovation challenge for which the last date to submit application is June 22, 2015.