October 14th, 2021: MeitY extends the last date of submission of applications by participants to October 18th, 2021
Some of India's largest-government projects (including Aadhaar, GSTN and DigiLocker) and many technology start-ups are built using FOSS1 (Free and Open Source Software).
Through this Challenge, Meity (Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology) has encouraged innovators, start-ups, working professionals, academics and students in India to showcase their existing FOSS based innovations and/or build new, implementable, open-source product innovations.
FOSS innovators are re-invited to propose Ideas/Products/ Innovations, build applications, having applications in the fields of Health, Education, Urban Governance, Agriculture or any other field related to E-governance for public for three categories:
- Customer relationship management (CRM)
- Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
- Others
This would also give the participants an opportunity to:
| Pitch ideas to experts and receive mentorship to develop and fine-tune solutions |
| The Winners of the Challenge will also receive cash rewards which as per the latest Press Release, cash rewards worth Rs. 1 cr. (Rs. 10 Million) |
| Winners will receive incubation2 support to scale their products. |
| They will have the opportunity to get their solutions listed on the Government e Marketplace (GeM)3 , thus allowing a host of central and state government departments to procure them |
The Challenge is open for all Indian entrepreneurs and FOSS enthusiasts including startups, students, academia, coders, IT professionals, engineers, UI/UX professionals, etc.
- All applicants should:Be Indian citizens and currently residing in India OR startups/Companies registered in India wherein majority stakeholders are Indians
- Register either as individuals with at most 2 supporting team members, with the team leader registering on behalf of the team.
There is no fee for registering and participating in the Challenge
The FOSS4Gov Innovation challenge will be organised in five stages:
| 1 | Team Creation Phase |
| 2 | Ideation Phase |
| 3 | Prototype Phase |
| 4 | Presentation Phase |
| 5 | Productisation Phase (Final Stage) |
The date for Results of the Challenge were to be announced on January 3rd, 2022 but I revised date might be announced as the last date of submission of applications is extended to October 18th, 2021
Interested in being a part? Hurry! Please visit https://innovateindia.mygov.in/foss4gov-innovation-challenge/ for more details
FOSS1 : Is the abbreviation for Free and Open Source Software also sometimes called just Open Source Software. Simply put, it is a software that is licensed to be free to use, modify, and distribute.
Free and open-source software (FOSS) allows users and programmers to edit, modify or reuse the software's source code. This gives developers the opportunity to improve program functionality by modifying it.
As the name “free” indicates, these software does not have copyright constraints.
*also referred to as free libre open-source software (FLOSS), free/open-source software (F/OSS)
Incubation2 : The meaning of the word, as Per Cambridge Dictionary, is "the process in which a bird, etc. keeps its eggs warm until the young come out, or the process in which an egg develops until the stage at which the young come out" .
Now putting the same meaning in terms of the Article: The winners will get support on their Software from experts, mentors and the Government to further develop, improvise and promote to help reach its potential.
GeM3 : Stand for Government e Marketplace is a contactless, paperless and cashless online marketplace that replaced the Directorate General of Supplies and Disposals (DGS&D)and set up to facilitate online purchase of commonly used Goods and Services by Government Departments/ Organizations/ PSUs .
This was set up with the purpose of speeding up while maintaining transparency in the Government procurement (purchase) process and at the same time provide an opportunity to small and mid size Industries to list and promote their products and services.
Take a peek to know more how it works https://gem.gov.in
