Indian Govt Will Pay You Rs 1 Crore, If You Build A Video-Calling App For Official Use

COVID-19 crisis has forced us to stay locked up indoors, and the only way we can interact with the outside world is through phone or video calls.

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Going against the likes of Zoom

With this dependency, we are not alien to the rise in popularity of Zoom video conferencing app.

Zoom app has gained quite some popularity due to this, however, at the same time, it has also been surrounded by a ton of controversies, pertaining to user privacy.

To eliminate India¡¯s dependency on such untrusted third-party apps, Indian Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has announced an innovative challenge for creating an indigenous video conferencing app that can be used by people of the nation without worrying about their privacy.

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Rs 1 crore prize for making Zoom alternative

For this creation, the authorities have also unveiled that they¡¯ll offer Rs 1 crore to the winning team.

The competition is open for participation in teams with experts from different fields of software development. However, the ministry is keen about the fact that only startups (as defined by the government of India) can apply for the competition.

First, the teams need to come up with innovative ideas they think they can implement. 10 teams will be shortlisted for the same and each of them will receive Rs 5 lakhs funding to build a functional prototype.

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After this, a jury panel will look at the creation and shortlist three teams to go to the final stage that will create the product that the users will finally get to use. To create this, they¡¯ll receive another Rs 20 lakhs funding.

The final winner among the trio will be then awarded Rs 1 crore. Moreover, their solution will be installed at the State Government offices for a year. Along with this, they will continue to receive Rs 10 lakhs every year for maintenance and regular operations costs. Authorities claim that the winning team will have to support the software for at least four years.

Hitting the basics right

There are a few basics that the app developers need to hit to get qualified. Firstly, the video calling app should be flexible in shifting resolutions and call audio depending on the network speed available.

Moreover, the app should not be resource-heavy and should run on even the oldest systems with less powerful CPUs and hardware, seamlessly.

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One of the most crucial features that it must possess is the ability to talk to multiple users at a time, the more the merrier. Additionally, the app should allow users to share files, screens with other users. This is supposed to be done with extreme emphasis on user privacy and the application of a strong encrypted network.

In case your team was interested, they could register before April 30, with their innovative ideas to be submitted before May 7. The winner will eventually be announced on July 29, 2020.