As I was growing up, the one sentence that I heard again and again from my elders was ‘Is desh ka kuchh nahi ho sakta.’ That is, the situation of India was considered hopeless and people saw nothing better in India’s future. But the future was resting on different shoulders. And those shoulders had decided not to droop down with dejection, but to be strong, and sturdy and write a different future for India.
We still have a long way to go, of course. But what we have achieved is worth applauding, especially in sectors like IT and healthcare.
Just yesterday, I attended an event hosted by Microsoft where I learned that the second largest developer community in the world comes from India. The first is, of course, the United States. As of now, there are about 1.6 million professional developers in India. And that’s a fact worth feeling proud about.
To add to this feeling of pride, on December 19, 2013, Microsoft has launched a grand new initiative called ‘Code for Honor.’ It is a nation wide contest inviting developers to code for the honor of developing winning applications (apps) and solutions for businesses and governments. These products are to be aimed at enhancing common good and convenience of business process and government services and departments. With the launch of this contest, Microsoft aims at generating 100+ Commercial Apps in 6 Months. The Code for Honor contest is for Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and tech start-ups and is supported by NIC, NASSCOM, TiE, Intel and Nokia.
From left to right – Bhaskar Pramanik, Chairman, Microsoft India – Joseph Landes, General Manager and Chief Evangelist, Microsoft India
While speaking at the announcement of Code for Honor contest, Joseph Landes, General Manager and Chief Evangelist, Microsoft India said, “Over the last two years, developers and ISVs in India have contributed significantly to the Windows and Windows Phone stores. The rich developer ecosystem in India makes it the ideal place for developing commercial applications.”
And commercial applications for common good is what the Code for Honor initiative wants to bring up.
Code for Honor contest aims to “recognize excellence in the development of commercial cloud apps and solutions on the Windows platform.” It offers Indian developers not just the cash reward of Rupees 2,00,000, but also the mentoring to be provided by an elite panel, and also the opportunity to become connected with potential investors and customers.
By taking part in this contest, ISVs and technology start-ups across India can win nine awards in four categories. These are
- Enterprise Apps and Solutions: Interest areas for this category include HR, Finance, Marketing, Sales etc.
- Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Apps and Solutions: For developing simple and cost effective apps and solutions targeting the operation needs of small companies.
- Government Enablement: Apps and solutions helpful to internal operations of various government depatments.
- Citizen Services: apps and solutions submitted in this category must be designed to benefit the society by making various government services easily and more conveniently available
In short, as the four mentioned categories suggest, Microsoft is not looking for apps targeted at fun and entertainment. Code for Honor is looking for apps and solutions that are beneficial to small and big businesses, to the Government, and to common public. And so, special credit is to be given to apps and solutions that are created to help in common good and to those that can be used by differently-able people.
There’s also an NIC-backed, special award to be given to ‘Best solution for social good using Open Gov Data’. Talking about this special award, Dr. Neeta Verma, Deputy Director General, National Informatics Centre said, “As per directive of NDSAP policy, NIC has set up an Open Data Platform to facilitate government departments & organizations to publish their data in open format. As of now over 5000 datasets are published in open format from 56 different departments. To encourage use of these datasets we are constantly engaging with developers, academia, industry as well as civil society to develop apps and visualizations for social good using government datasets in open domain. We are glad to note that Code for Honor Awards – 2014 has an exclusive category for apps developed using datasets on data.gov.in. We urge developers all across India to develop apps to demonstrate innovation in delivery of Government Information & Services.” As is clear by these words, for this special award, NIC (National Informatics Centre) wants ISVs to develop applications using these data sets.
On the occasion of the Code for Honor contest’s announcement, Bhaskar Pramanik, Chairman, Microsoft Corporation (India) Pvt Ltd, said, “Code for Honor will kick-start the creation of apps and solutions that are scalable, reliable and secure and that can be used over public, private and hybrid clouds.”
And according to Steve Guggenheimer, Corporate Vice President and Chief Evangelist, Microsoft, “With best-in-class guidance, Code for Honor will challenge developers to build apps that have large-scale impact both for India and the world.”
Details of Code for Honor Contest:
Code for Honor Trophy
Eligibility: Indian ISV or tech start-up less than eight years old and having less than 200 employees
Groups: Contestants will be divided in two different groups based on the size of their organization. These groups are:
- Small: 1 to 50 employees
- Medium: 51 to 200 employees
Categories: The contestants are to create market-ready software in any of the following four categories:
- Large Enterprise Solution
- MSME* Solution (MSME = Micro-Small-Medium-sized Enterprises)
- Government-enablement Solution
- Citizen Services Solution
Timeframe: 19 December 2013 to 15 June 2014.
Schedule:
- Solution Synopsis: 19 December 2013 – 31 January 2014, Max. 1000 Participants will be selected for the second round.
- Solution Detail: 10 February 2014 – 10 March 2014, Max. 200 Participants will be selected for next round
- Zonal Finals: 1 April 2014 – 11 April 2014, Max, 30 Participants will be selected for next round
- National Finals: June 2014, Max. 9 Winners will be chosen.
Prizes:
- Code for Honor Award for best solution in their category
- Access to potential customers
- Opportunity to establish meaningful mentor relationships
- A chance to showcase their solution to potential investors
- Prize money of INR 200,000/- per team
- Windows 8 and Windows Phone device
Registration: Developers can register for this contest at www.codeforhonor.com.
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