Grand Challenge: Strengthen Govt Vaccine Portal, Get Rich Rewards

New Delhi: The government will reward innovators and startups for strengthening ‘CoWIN’, a digitalised platform for the effective national rollout and scaling up of the COVID Vaccine Distribution System.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) announced the ‘Grand Challenge’ with rewards totalling Rs 3.85 crore on offer.

The top two contestants will receive Rs 40 lakh and Rs 20 lakh, respectively.

The challenge was launched by Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on the MSH (MeitY Startup Hub) portal.

Registration started on Thursday and will be open for participants till January 15, 2021.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has identified seven areas of technology development to address likely limitations towards developing a complete and effective vaccine distribution system (VDS) and seamless administration across the country.

The top five applicants will be provided CoWIN APIs (Application Programming Interface) to prove the efficacy of their solutions for possible integration with the platform.

“Each shortlisted applicant stands a chance to win Rs 2 lakh covering their logistical requirements. The solutions once integrated with the platform through open APIs will be assessed for robustness and scalability,” MeitY said.