As we all know that India is under complete lockdown, and the government if promoting work from home for working-class people and virtual classes through online video conferences for students. As there has been an increase in the usage of video conference apps, the Indian government has come up with a new challenge to promote the development of homegrown apps.
Previously, the government issued an advisory, in which it was mentioned that people should avoid using Zoom meetings as the app has some significant privacy issues.
The decision to have a homegrown app for video conferencing is the result of the controversies related to Zoom and its increasing use in the country.
Innovation challenge for video conferencing solution
The challenge requires you to create an Indian Zoom alternative that can meet the video conferencing needs of the country. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has announced it as a “Make in India” challenge.
The best part is that the government is offering a reward of Rs 1 crore to the winner of the challenge.
Stages of qualification for the Make In India challenge
- Any individual or a team from the software development life cycle can participate in the challenge.
- In the first stage, the best ideas will be shortlisted, and they will get Rs 5 lakh as an award. 10 best teams will be selected in this stage.
- In the second stage, three teams will be shortlisted and they’ll get an award of Rs 20 lakh to create the app.
- One of the apps will be selected out of the three in the third and final stage and will be officially announced as the homegrown video conferencing app by the state and the central governments.
- The winning team will get an award of Rs 1 crore from the Indian government. Apart from that, they will have to support the applications for at least four years. A budget of Rs 10 lakh per year will be sanctioned for the development and maintenance of the app.
Mandatory features for video conferencing app
- Support all video resolutions and audio quality
- Compatible with any device.
- Consist of a chat option during the video conference
- Have a video, audio recording feature
- Have encrypted network communication
- Use low power and work even in weak network scenarios
All the interested app developers can apply by visiting the official website of the Indian government. The government will not consider any submissions after 11:45 PM IST, April 30, 2020.
