RBI Global Hackathon To Make Digital Financial Services Accessible For Differently Abled. Details Here

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Tuesday announced that it is organising its second global hackathon, “Harbinger 2023 – Innovation for Transformation,” inviting participants from all over the world to develop solutions that will make digital financial services accessible for the differently abled. Additionally, the second hackathon by the apex bank has invited participants to develop solutions to facilitate efficient compliance, extend the reach of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC) and enhance blockchains' scalability.

In its effort towards inclusivity and empowerment of the differently abled community in the country, RBI has notified that the hackathon will encourage “innovative, easy-to-use, digital banking services.” The apex bank said that to empower the “differently abled (Divyaang) people of the country with digital banking services, easy-to-use innovative solutions for digital banking services such as digital payments, account opening, account statement, payment of utility bills, usage of debit/credit cards, etc.,” would be explored as part of the global hackathon. According to RBI, the hackathon aims to address the issues and provide equal opportunity to the physically challenged without discrimination to enable them to access financial services.

In addition, the RBI global hackathon Harbinger 2023 has invited innovative ideas for “RegTech solutions to facilitate more efficient compliance by regulated entities (REs). Exploring use cases/solutions for CBDC-Retail transactions, including transactions in offline mode. Increasing Transactions Per Second (TPS)/ throughput and scalability of blockchains,” as per the official release. 

Details About The RBI Global Hackathon

It is important to note that the registration for the hackathon starts on February 22, 2023, and the problem statements would be worked upon by the participants, including “individuals, teams, entities from the hardware/software and coding community,” RBI release notified. The hackathon as a competitive event will enable the participants to “submit ideas, create solutions, exhibit the prototypes, and the solutions are judged by a panel,” it said. The official release has notified that the hackathon would allow the participants to be “mentored by industry experts” and exhibit their innovative solutions before a jury. It is worth noting that the hackathon winner will win Rs 40 lakh, while the runner-up will be awarded a cash prize of Rs 20 lakh, as per the RBI release.

Here’s How To Apply:

1.    Click on the link for registration: HARBINGER 2023 - Home (apixplatform.com)
2.    After registering, select the problem statement.
3.    Submit your proposal.
4.    Fill in the responses for all the proposal questions.
5.    Application for more than one problem statement is permitted for those who fulfil all the criteria set out in each category.
6.    The solution must aim to address the needs covered by more than one problem statement.

Who Is Eligible For The RBI Global Hackathon

As per the official release, individuals above the age of eighteen, all entities, and teams eligible to enter into a contractual agreement are eligible to apply. Additionally, the product or the solution must “have an element of innovation or novel application of technology serving the common good,” the release noted. The hackathon has invited participants from all backgrounds and geographies, “albeit knowledge about the Indian financial services market and consumers is preferred,” the release said, adding that all relevant and impactful solutions would be considered “irrespective of the stage.”