TITA to hold Political Hackathon on November 3

Hyderabad: For the first time in India, Telangana will host a ‘Political Hackathon’. Right from the preparation of manifesto to finding solutions to local problems, the hackathon will provide a platform for seekers to find solutions.

Telangana Information Technology Association (TITA), in association with Voice of Digithon and Hackathon Group, is organising the hackathon. The Election Commission has provided a few suggestions and recommendations for the initiative on Wednesday. For this purpose, TITA team interacted with the Joint CEO Amrapali. While the pre-hackathon will be conducted throughout November, the grand finale will be held during the end of November. The first pre-hackathon will be held at Phoenix IT Park in Hi-Tec City on 3rd November. Voice of Digithon, a monthly technology publication, will lend its support to the initiative. In addition to the IT corridor, the hackathon will be held in all the constituencies of the State.

Voting is a key component of the democratic system, and the hackathon will aim to enable the electoral system to become people-friendly, said TITA Global President and Hackathon Founder Sundeep Kumar Makthala. The political hackathon has been designed in such a way that both political leaders and citizens can pose issues that demand solutions. Issues, such as how can one improve the voting percentage in the elections and what can parties and their leaders do, and how can rigging be addressed, can be raised for solutions at the hackathon. The participants in the hackathon will have to develop solutions for real-time challenges faced in elections.

Besides aiming to find solutions to broader State-level problems, the hackathon will also seek solutions to many regional/local problems. Any citizen over the age of 15 years can take part in the hackathon. One needs to login to https://goo.gl/oJi2hZ and enter their details to register. Such a kind of hackathon is rarely held across the world. One precedent was held in Texas, USA. The hackathon is the first of its kind in India. It will not only help improving the voting percentage, but also help in finding solutions to real political problems. The outcomes of the hackathon can be published and can be given away to the Election Commission and to all political parties across the country. The publication will help in streamlining the electoral process further.

The Political Hackathon will prove as a useful tool in bringing a major transformation in the electoral process, said Makthala. It will pave way for people to share real-time electoral or political challenges for which they seek solutions, while enabling to bring in systematic implementation of measures to solve those issues, he said. Citizens can bring to notice their key expectations that impact the society. They can also highlight the changes/improvements they expect from the electoral system, he added. He assured that the Hackathon will include the recommendations to yield constructive and healthy outcomes.

When TITA approached Joint CEO Amrapali, she recommended ways to improve the voting percentage of elderly/senior citizens and differently able citizens and requested to present these challenges as part of the political hackathon. She further suggested that the Election Commission’s portal be promoted, and that the electoral process be familiarized through the hackathon. Hackathon Team members Ranapratap Bojjam, Neha Bandari, Avinash were present during the meet with the Election Commission at Secretariat.