Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA)  announced the opening of  Urban Geospatial Data Stories Challenge to foster adoption of geospatial technologies & to promote innovation in India’s urban ecosystem. The challenge has been organized with select Smart Cities that will be publishing high quality GIS datasets. More than 1000 geospatial datasets have been made available to the registered participants from national geospatial agencies, private sector enterprises, scientific and academic institutions, businesses, consumer services & start-ups to analyse this data and create insightful data stories.

Leading up to the ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav- Smart Cities: Smart Urbanization’ conference scheduled to be held in Surat, during February 2022, the Urban Geospatial Data Stories Challenge is part of a series of pre-event initiatives being undertaken by MoHUA to foster adoption of geospatial technologies & to promote innovation in India’s urban ecosystem. The challenge will commence for the registered participants on 1^st January, 2022 and conclude by end of January 2022.

The Challenge has been designed to promote Geospatial Policy and to make India a Geospatial enabled nation. Sharing and integration of wide range of data will empower citizens and enterprises to create, assess, and use geospatial data and information for empowering people and making urban services and applications more effective. Built on the concept of ‘open innovation’ & ‘open data sharing’, the hackathon is likely to benefit stakeholders across all cities in India. Assimilation of innovative ideas & solutions from a wide array of geo spatial experts covering academia, private sector, emerging technologies, and government would help in solving some of the most common problems faced by the citizens of any city and replicating the successful ideas in other cities.

800 participants have registered till date and more than 10 Agencies have partnered for mentoring and evaluation, making this challenge a collaborative effort towards making India a Geospatial enabled nation. The Challenge details, including datasets and guidelines for participation are available online at https://urbanhack.niua.org/

Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav

Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav is an initiative of the Government of India to celebrate and commemorate 75 years of progressive India and the glorious history of its people, culture and achievements. This Mahotsav is dedicated to the people of India who have not only been instrumental in bringing India thus far in its evolutionary journey, but also hold within them the power and potential to enable Prime Minister Modi’s vision of activating India 2.0, fuelled by the spirit of Atmanirbhar Bharat.

Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav is an embodiment of all that is progressive about India’s socio-cultural, political, and economic identity. The official journey of “Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav” commenced on 12th March 2021 which starts a 75-week countdown to our 75th anniversary of Independence.

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YB