Applications are invited for the Online Hackathon on Data-driven Innovation for Citizen Grievance Redressal by the Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances of the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions.

About DARPG Challenge 2024

DARPG welcomes you to participate in the Online Hackathon on Data-driven Innovation for Citizen Grievance Redressal organised by the Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances (DARPG) of the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions.

DARPG invites the participants to address challenges related to citizen grievance redressal using data-driven solutions. The hackathon shall make available anonymised, curated and structured datasets of grievance reports submitted by citizens for the participating teams to analyse, study and utilise to develop various kinds of innovative solutions to be adapted and implemented by DARPG as per its requirements

Hackathon Details

The participating teams may address one or multiple Problem Statements defined by the organiser and submit innovative products and services as specified for each Problem Statement. These products and services may involve automation of speech-to-text transcription in various Indian languages, development of AI/ML models for various purposes such as chatbots or topic clustering, mechanisms for grievance classification and monitoring, as well as UI/UX additions and enhancements for existing software systems implemented by DARPG.

Participation open for challenge:

The top 3 most innovative solutions will be awarded the following prizes:

  • INR Two Lakhs for the most innovative data-driven solution;
  • INR One Lakh for the second most innovative data-driven solution; and
  • INR fifty thousand for the third most innovative data-driven solution.

Each participating team may have up to 5 members, all of whom must be at least 18 years old. The participants may be students or researchers, or associated with Indian startups and companies.

Registered participants will be provided access to anonymised citizen grievance datasets to prototype their solutions for the selected Problem Statement. The most innovative and promising prototypes will be publicly recognised and will be considered for further development and implementation by the DARPG to improve the experience and performance of the Citizen Grievance Redressal systems of the Government of India.

Participation

This Contest is open for the following:

  • Students/Research Scholars/Individuals
  • Indian Start-Ups/Indian Companies (Registered Company name and its registration number required)
  • Participant(s) must be of a of minimum 18 years.
  • Participants can form teams – ideally heterogeneous, consisting of people with different skill sets – up to a maximum of five members including the Team Lead.
  • Minimum team composition must be at least one including the Team Lead.
  • Employees and relatives of NIC and DARPG are not allowed to participate in this Hackathon.

How to Register?

  • All participants must register at Janparichay.
  • A registered user can directly log in here and submit the required details to participate in the Hackathon.
  • It is expected that the participants will submit accurate and up-to-date details and they have to confirm this before submission.
  • A team leader and each team member can be part of only one team. Any one of the team members can create a team for participation.

Structure of the Online Hackathon

  • The event will be conducted online.
  • Participation would be open for Students, Research Scholars, Individuals, Indian Start-Ups and Indian Companies.
  • There would be a time of 45 days from the launch of the Hackathon to register and submit a solution prototype.
  • Interested candidates can access the event registration and submission links here.
  • DARPG would provide citizen grievance datasets (anonymized and hashed) from 1st January 2023 to Hackathon registrants, which can be accessed from the challenge portal.
  • Before submission of the solution prototype, participants have to upload their code in the GIT repository and an optional demo/product video on YouTube.
  • For online submissions, the following items are to be shared for evaluation by DARPG:
    • Link to the Solution Source Code Repository Product Demo/ Features
    • Video Link (Optional)
    • Project Presentation in PDF
    • Project File/Report or other Document in PDF (if any)
    • In the case of UI/UX designs SVG File(s)
  • Potential solution prototypes would be selected by an eminent Jury comprising experts from Government, Academia, Community, Industry, etc., which is to be identified and notified by DARPG. Shortlisted participants may be called for presentation on the panel.
  • Selected entries from the online challenge would be given a certificate and all shortlisted entries would be given an appreciation certificate. All the participants would be given a certificate of participation to be downloaded from the submission portals.
  • DARPG would consider planning for the next steps to take the selected solution prototypes forward and decide on further adoption strategies for selected entries.

Problem Statement

There are five problem statements for the Hackathon. Link to the datasets will be available after registration on the challenge page. The problem statements are as follows:

  • Problem Statement 1: Develop an AI/ML-driven system for topic clustering/modelling to enable auto-categorisation of received grievance reports for sharing of the same with last-mile officers concerned. The proposed solution may include a mechanism for sharing received grievance reports with various registered officials as well as monitoring/tracking of the reports concerned.
  • Problem Statement 2: Develop an AI/ML-driven Chatbot which is Ministry Specific to help the Citizens resolve their common queries related to filing a Grievance in the CPGRAMS portal (https://pgportal.gov.in) and expedite the smooth submission of grievances.
  • Problem Statement 3: Evaluate and optimize an existing open-source speech-to-text transcription tool for accurately converting feedback calls related to citizen grievances into English text. The goal is to benchmark the tool’s performance and implement enhancements to achieve measurable improvements in transcription accuracy for calls in Hindi, English, and Hinglish. This project does not involve creating a new system but focuses on refining an already established open-source solution.
  • Problem Statement 4: Develop an AI/ML-driven system for granular monitoring, logging and analysis of the existing auto-routing system to identify and analyse patterns of
    • Grievances being routed to the incorrect agency/official,
    • Keep in mind that habitual complainants person/agency may file multiple grievances per Ministry and not be made part of ranking and
    • Grievance redressal performance of various Ministries/Departments/States/UTs to generate a ranking of their effectiveness and efficiency.
  • The proposed solution may be a dashboard, accessible via web and mobile for DARPG and other relevant officials, to monitor the performance of the grievance redressal system and various registered government agencies. GRAI Report will be shared with all participants to understand the existing ranking system.
  • Problem Statement 5: Develop UI/UX solutions to improve adoption and usability (by Government Agencies/Officers) of DARPG portal/tools such as Tree Dashboard and IGMS website.

Deadline

The last date for the application is Feb 16, 2024.

Click here to view the Online Hackathon on Data-driven Innovation for Citizen Grievance Redressal by DARPG.

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