Rural India Business Conclave 2.0
Hackathon organized by Kerala Startup Mission
Hello There!
This is Shivam, just an average programmer, and Cyber Security Enthusiast. So now, if you are going to ask what I’m doing in this Rural India Business Conclave post, I would say that’s an excellent question because I don’t even know how I landed on this.
Hackathons used to be a massive term for me just two months ago. And then, I participated in my University Internal SIH Hackathon and got 1st prize. But that’s another story for some other day.
After getting Interested in these hackathons, One of my colleagues always asked me to participate in other Hackathons, and I always said, “WHY NOT!!!”. Like this, we got this opportunity to participate in this RIBC 2.0 hackathon, All thanks to the DevFolio website.
RIBC 2.0 was officially organized by Kerala Startup Mission, CPCRI, and ICAR in Kerala. The theme for this year’s event is ‘Ways to make use of technology for the growth of rural India.’
RIBC 2.0 featured interactions by the country’s frontline startup entrepreneurs, sessions on the growth and prospects of technological evolution in agriculture and food production, panel discussions on the scope of rural India, and marketability of products developed through technologies devised by government-run establishments, including CPCRI at Kasaragod.
Rural-Agri Tech Hackathon was organized to promote innovative technical solutions for better agricultural growth in the country.
More than 30 teams participated, and then 13 teams were selected for the offline 30 hours hackathon. After getting elected, we all got excited and started thoroughly thinking about the project idea. And at last, we came upon a solution which I can’t disclose here. HAHA!
At first, I was nervous about the competition and the level of the participants, but at the same time, I was excited because it was my FIRST OFFLINE hackathon.
“ But I kept my expectations low so that I won’t get disappointed. ”
- MJ from Spiderman no way home
After we reach the venue, they have arranged everything needed to kickstart the program. So it started with a speech by Chief Guests about the Problem statements and the Key aspects of this Hackathon. The overall focus should be on Technology used for the development of rural areas.
Out of five problem statements, we chose the software-based problem statement to develop an application for Local Tourism, which will help people from rural areas generate revenue.
After choosing the problem statement, as soon as we kickstarted the project, Mentors were assigned to all the teams. All we have to do is submit the idea by the first presentation, and then there will be some checkpoints where judges will be checking our progress and, based on that, will evaluate us.
All things went smoothly. I really can’t tell you how time passed. We had a small gathering after dinner. Other participants were also engaging. Thirty hours felt so less after the Hackathon was over.
Sometimes, the entrepreneurs tell their startup stories. And the volunteer students were also encouraging participants to complete their projects.
Soon after the night’s work, this journey came to an end. And there was just the last checkpoint for the judges to conclude the result for the top 5 teams.
Unfortunately, we didn’t get selected, but we didn’t lose hope. We are encouraged to start the idea as a startup and offer our service to developing rural areas and local businesses.
In the future, we will also get into these kinds of Hackathons to gain more experience. This was my best experience, but there are more to come. Until then, keep learning…
