India Offers Developers Rs. 1 Crore To Build Zoom Alternative

The Centre has launched a video conferencing app development challenge for Indian companies with prize money of Rs. 1 crore.

New Delhi| The Central government has launched a challenge to develop Zoom alternative for Indian companies with prize money of Rs. 1 crore.

Since the nationwide lockdown began from March 25 in India, the only way to hold meeting or classes was through online video conferencing.

The corporate companies and even educational institutes came up with creative methods to continue their work and teach children online.

The innovation challenge has been launched at a time when security issues have been highlighted in the Zoom video-conferencing app.

The government introduced the “Innovation Challenge for Development of Video Conferencing Solution” to facilitate Work from Home (WFH) that has become a necessity for crores of people in the country.

Due to work-from-home a huge amount of information is being shared online, giving rise to concerns over the privacy of the communications and control over the app and data shared through the app.

The app development challenge began registration on April 13 and the last date for registering is April 30. The video conferencing app should be able to work on any kind of device, in poor network areas, should have encrypted communication, and should use less power.

Also Read: “Zoom Not Safe”, Government Warns Against The Video Conferencing Service

The results of the government challenge will be announced on 29 July. The winning team will be given Rs. 1 crore to extend the app for use by central and state Governments across India and a certificate by Minister of Electronics and Information Technology.

Interested app developer or team can apply for Innovation Challenge till April 30, 23:45 pm IST (here).