Reserve Bank announces second global hackathon, winner to get Rs 40 lakh

The Reserve Bank on Tuesday announced its second global hackathon -- 'HARBINGER 2023 - Innovation for Transformation' with the theme 'Inclusive Digital Services'.

Fintechs have been invited to develop solutions that have the potential to make digital financial services accessible to the differently-abled, facilitate efficient compliance, extend the reach of Central Bank Digital Currencies and enhance the scalability of blockchains.

"Being part of HARBINGER 2023 gives an opportunity to the participants to get mentored by industry experts and exhibit their innovative solutions before an eminent jury and win exciting prizes in each category," the RBI said.

Registration for the hackathon starts from February 22, 2023.

The RBI has invited innovative ideas in four segments.

'Innovative, easy-to-use, digital banking services for differently-abled (Divyaang); RegTech solutions to facilitate more efficient compliance by Regulated Entities (REs)'; Exploring use cases/solutions for CBDC-Retail transactions, including transactions in offline mode'; and 'increasing Transactions Per Second (TPS)/ throughput and scalability of blockchains'.

Winner of the hackathon will be given a prize of Rs 40 lakh and runner-up Rs 20 lakh.

The first hackathon was announced in November 2021 and results were declared in June 2022.

It had received 363 proposals submitted by teams from within India and from 22 other countries including the US, UK, Sweden, Singapore, Philippines, and Israel.