Hackathon Methodology for E-Governance: Can We Get the Problem Solvers and Solution Seekers on One Common Platform?

Abstract

The GOI has approved the ‘Digital India’ programme with the vision to transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy. E- Governance is among the nine pillars of the Digital India programme. At present E-Governance programme for Government of India has been designed & developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC). To work towards our vision for Digital India and promote creativity the Ministry of HRD, AICTE, and UGC are undertaking multiple initiatives; one of the key initiatives collectively of MHRD is Smart India Hackathon (SIH). A direct outcome of this study was student’s participation in the Smart India Hackathon 2020. In this paper, the students’ informal learning gained through the design and development of ‘TrackIT’ an E-governance application to monitor all files movements for the Government of Sikkim. 90% of the team members reported having a very positive and new experience while developing a novel solution for the E-governance challenge faced by the Government of Sikkim.