Tech Hackathon 2025
Join the biggest tech innovation event in Indore. Build, innovate, and compete with the brightest minds in technology.
- 11 – 19 Aug 2025
- Indore, Madhya Pradesh
- 500+ Participants
indore idea factory foundation
indore idea factory foundation
indore idea factory foundation
indore idea factory foundation
indore idea factory foundation
indore idea factory foundation
indore idea factory foundation
indore idea factory foundation
Introduction
Persistent delays in grievance redressal through the Jansunwai platform and the absence of real-time monitoring mechanisms for encroachments on public land remain key urban governance challenges in Indore. Despite its strides in digital infrastructure and public engagement, the city continues to grapple with procedural inefficiencies, slow response cycles, and limited integration of advanced technologies in these domains. To address these pressing concerns and reinforce Indore’s leadership in smart governance, the Indore Smart City Hackathon has been launched as a platform to invite innovative, tech-enabled, and scalable solutions. By leveraging tools like Artificial Intelligence, GIS, drones, and citizen-centric platforms, the Hackathon aims to crowdsource impactful ideas that will enhance transparency, improve service delivery, and build a future-ready urban ecosystem.
Objectives
Smart Grievance Management:
Develop AI-based and digital solutions for grievance redressal, SLA tracking, and citizen feedback in Jansunwai.
Real-Time Land Monitoring:
Implement GIS, satellite, and drone-based systems for detecting and monitoring land encroachments.
Centralized Dashboards:
Enable analytics-driven decision-making and unified dashboards for grievance and land data.
Collaboration Ecosystem:
Promote active collaboration between academia, industry, and government institutions for solution development.
Multilingual Accessibility:
Design inclusive, user-friendly platforms supporting multiple languages for citizen access.
Scalable Solutions:
Create adaptable systems that can be scaled and applied to other urban governance domains.
Prize Money
First Prize
₹4,00,000
Second Prize
₹2,00,000
Third Prize
₹1,00,000
Why Indore?
Indore is rapidly emerging as a major tech hub in Central India. With its growing startup ecosystem, world-class educational institutions, and thriving IT industry, it's the perfect location for India's next big tech breakthrough.
50+
Tech Companies
15+
Startups
100k+
Tech Professionals
25+
Engineering Colleges
Why This Hackathon
This hackathon empowers innovators to collaborate, solve real-world challenges, and transform bold ideas into impactful solutions. It's a unique opportunity to learn, build, and connect with a passionate community driven by creativity, technology, and meaningful change.
Problem Statements
01Illegal Construction on Public & Private Land
Indore is rapidly growing, but Illegal Construction on Public & Private Land on public land remain major urban challenges. Manual processes, delayed detection, and poor coordination among departments make timely action difficult. To protect public assets and ensure planned development, the city now requires real-time, tech-driven, and integrated solutions.
Indore Smart City Development Limited (ISCDL) invites innovative tech solutions to address the persistent challenge of Illegal Construction on Public & Private Land.
key challenges:
- Absence of Integrated Monitoring and Real-Time Tracking There is no unified system using technologies like GIS, drones, or satellite imagery to monitor illegal construction or encroachment in real time, leading to delayed visibility and unchecked violations.
- Manual and Loophole-Prone Approval Processes Building permission processes are mostly manual and inconsistent, creating loopholes that allow unauthorized constructions to bypass legal scrutiny.
- Delayed Detection and Weak Enforcement Mechanisms Violations are often identified after substantial construction is completed. The enforcement of zoning regulations and building bye-laws is irregular and weak.
- Lack of Predictive Analytics and Early Warning Systems There are no AI-based tools or spatial risk models to anticipate potential hotspots of illegal activity or provide timely alerts to authorities.
- Poor Coordination Among Urban, Revenue, and Police Departments Lack of data sharing, joint monitoring, and coordinated enforcement across key departments leads to fragmented and ineffective action.
- Limited Integration of Citizen Complaints and Grievance Redressal Public reports and complaints regarding illegal construction are not effectively captured, tracked, or responded to through a centralized platform.
We seek scalable and cost-effective solutions that can offer:
- Satellite/GIS/drone-based encroachment detection
- AI/ML models for spatial change detection and pattern analysis
- Real-time alerts and dashboards for enforcement
- Integration with property records, municipal systems, and land use data
- Citizen engagement platforms for reporting and validation
02 Jansunwai Problem statements
Indore has consistently led urban transformation efforts through digital governance and citizen engagement. One of the key pillars of participatory governance is Jansunwai, a platform for addressing citizen grievances and ensuring responsive administration. However, as the volume and complexity of urban services grow, the current Jansunwai system faces several procedural bottlenecks that hinder effective grievance resolution and timely feedback.
Indore Smart City invites innovative digital solutions to streamline and strengthen the Jansunwai (Public Grievance Redressal) mechanism. The current system faces the following.
key challenges:
- Misrouting of complaints and manual escalation delays
- No SLA-based tracking or real-time monitoring by departments
- Lack of integrated dashboard for grievance lifecycle management
- Weak feedback loop from citizens post-resolution
- Inadequate analytics for pattern recognition and root-cause analysis
- Limited accessibility, especially for non-tech-savvy users
- Poor integration with existing municipal platforms
We are looking for scalable, user-friendly, and data-driven solutions with features like AI-based complaint routing, SLA enforcement, multilingual interfaces, predictive analytics, and platform integration.
03 Cybercrime Investigation & Enforcement
With the rapid digitization of services, governance, and daily communication, cities across India — including fast-growing urban centers like Indore — are witnessing a sharp rise in cybercrimes such as financial frauds, data breaches, digital blackmail, and online harassment. Despite the growing threat, enforcement mechanisms remain weak due to limited technical capacity, poor inter-agency coordination, and outdated investigative processes. Existing systems are fragmented, reactive, and ill-equipped to address the speed, scale, and complexity of modern cyber threats.
Indore Smart City Development Limited (ISCDL) invites scalable and innovative tech solutions to address the growing challenge of cybercrime investigation and enforcement across rapidly digitizing urban centers like Indore.
key challenges:
- Use of Anonymity Tools (VPN, Tor, Proxy) Criminals hide their identity and location using encrypted networks, making tracing extremely difficult.
- Cross-Border Jurisdiction Issues Many offenders operate from foreign countries with no legal cooperation, limiting investigation reach.
- Encrypted Apps and Communication Platforms Even with warrants, police cannot access data due to strong encryption and privacy policies of providers.
- Lack of AI Tools for Pattern Detection No predictive tools to detect digital threats like phishing, deepfakes, or identity fraud.
- Unregulated Apps and Virtual Numbers Fraudulent loan apps and foreign VoIP numbers are used for scams and extortion, beyond telecom regulation.
- Weak Coordination with Private Tech Platforms Delays or denials in data access from app stores, telecom firms, and service providers restrict enforcement.
- No Unified Cybercrime Dashboard or Complaint Platform Citizen reports are not captured or responded to efficiently through a centralized digital system.
We seek scalable and cost-effective solutions that can offer:
- AI-powered digital investigation platforms for threat detection, pattern analysis, and anomaly spotting.
- Tools for VPN, Tor, and proxy usage mapping with capabilities to trace anonymized IP activities.
- Real-time complaint monitoring systems and interactive dashboards for enforcement agencies.
- Frameworks for coordination and secure data exchange between private platforms and government cyber cells.
- Citizen-centric portals or mobile apps for easy reporting, case tracking, and awareness.
- Cross-departmental data integration models enabling predictive enforcement and early response.
Terms & Conditions
- Submit entries only via https://indoretechhackathon.com.
- Team size must be between 2 to 4 members.
- Open to students, startups, firms, companies, institutions, and individuals with AI expertise.
- Solutions must be AI-based, original, and will be judged on feasibility, impact, scalability, and sustainability.
- Submissions must be in English and follow the prescribed format.
- Late, incomplete, or incorrect entries will be disqualified.
- IMC reserves the right to accept or reject any participation.
- Participants retain intellectual property rights of their submissions.
- Submissions must be original and free from third-party claims.
- IMC is not liable for protection of proprietary information.
- IMC may use names, images, and submissions for promotion without compensation.
- Governed by Indian law; disputes subject to Indore jurisdiction.
- Misconduct or manipulation will lead to disqualification.
- IMC is not responsible for any loss, delay, or event change.
- Organizers may use responses in reports and promotional content.
- No reimbursement will be provided for participation expenses.
- Shortlisted teams must submit valid ID, age, address, and bank details.
- Organizers may modify or cancel the event if needed.
Hackathon Format
Round
Idea Submission
Online submission of ideas against curated problem statements.
Round
Prototype Development
Shortlisted teams develop prototypes.
Round
Finale in Indore
Top teams demonstrate live in front of a jury.
Team Leader will submit the details of the entry for:
- Team Information
- Project Proposal
- Technical Details
- Business Plan
- Supporting Documents
The jury panel shall include Government Officials, Tech experts (Academia), Tech Experts (industry), Incubators.
Team Leaders may create an account on Open Forge/GitHub, etc. for code share and review. It is responsibility of participants to refrain from malpractices of plagiarism and copying ideas of others.
To encourage participation from across academia and industry, participating teams are not mandatorily required to be registered Indian Companies/startups to apply for the challenge. However, teams shortlisted at the Ideation Stage will be required to register themselves as Indian startup/Company and submit relevant proof at the stage of submission of the Prototype.
Hackathon Timeline
| Phase | Dates | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Registration Period | 04 – 22 July 2025 | Teams register to develop innovative digital solutions for either improving the Jansunwai grievance redressal system or detecting and managing land encroachments. |
| Round 1 Idea Submission |
23 – 26 July 2025 | Teams submit detailed proposals addressing key issues like AI-based complaint routing, SLA tracking, GIS/spatial analysis, or predictive encroachment detection. |
| Shortlisting Announcement | 27 – 29 July 2025 | Best ideas are shortlisted based on innovation, feasibility, scalability, and alignment with urban governance and land management goals. |
| Round 2 Prototype Development |
30 July – 19 Aug 2025 | Selected teams build working prototypes showcasing features such as dashboards, real-time alerts, analytics, spatial mapping, and citizen feedback tools. Top 24 teams are chosen to demonstrate their prototypes live, based on technical soundness and potential impact on governance efficiency. |
| Finalists Presentation | 20 Aug 2025 | Finalist teams will present live demos of their digital solutions to a jury in Indore, focusing on innovation, feasibility, and impact on urban governance. |
Parameters for evaluation
Round
Concept Submission (online)
Problem Understanding, Relevance to Use of Open/Public Data, Innovation & Uniqueness, Feasibility of Implementation
Round
Prototype Development & Grand Finale
Technical Functionality, Use of AI/Data, Usability & User Interface, Potential for Integration, Documentation & Presentation, Impact Potential, Scalability & Replicability, Real-Time Demo Performance, Cultural & Logistical Fit, Jury Q&A.
Note: The Committee’s decision is final and binding.
