Planning Commission, NIC Organize First Ever Hackathon

EFT Bureau, Mumbai: The Planning Commission and the National Innovation Council are organizing the first ever Hackathon on the 12th Five Year Plan (2012–17) from April 6–7, 2013. Hackathon, also know as hackfest, is an event in which computer programmers and others in the field of software development, as well as graphic designers, interface designers and project managers collaborate intensively on software projects. The word 'Hackathon' is an amalgam (portmanteu) of words 'hack' and 'marathon'.

Planning Commission, NIC Organize First Ever Hackathon 

The Hackathon is being organized simultaneously in 11 locations across India and participants can also join virtually. The event is taking place at University of Jammu, IIT Delhi, Delhi University, Aligarh Muslim University, IIT Kanpur, IIT Kharagpur, TISS Mumbai, IIIT Hyderabad, IISc Bangalore, IIT Madras and IIM Shillong. Thousands of young creative designers, coders, film-makers along with policy and development enthusiasts will visualize and narrate the 12th Plan through infographics, short films, and support the initiatives proposed in the Plan by developing software applications. The event will last for 32 hours during which participants will gather in teams across India to compete for interesting prizes in three categories - mobile/web applications, infographics and short films.

More details about the Hackathon are available on www.data.gov.in/hackathon. There are more updates about the event on Facebook at facebook.com/PlanComIndia and Twitter feeds @PlanComIndia and @pitrodasam. The 12th Plan is the product of unprecedented participation from Indian citizens and civil society to set out a vision for India`s progress over the next five years. The Planning Commission and the National Innovation Council now invite similar participation to visualize and articulate its rich and insightful content to India.