BusinessWire India

New Delhi [India], November 18: TiE Delhi-NCR announced its partnership with Prayatna to host an IT-enabled innovation-based Hackfest, the 'Malaria Hackfest - Predict, Plan & Prevent', powered by Mortein. With this initiative, TiE Delhi-NCR in partnership with Prayatna is seeking solutions that address gaps in surveillance, location spotting and forecasting malaria outbreaks.

The programme would be inviting all the top tech schools in the country viz., IITs, NITs, IIITs to the hackfest with an aim to scout for start-ups for addressing these gaps. The winner would carry home awards of up to Rs 5 lakhs.

Speaking about the initiative, Ravi Bhatnagar, Director, External Affairs and Partnerships, SOA, Reckitt, said, "Utilising technology-enabled innovations is crucial to effectively address the issue of malaria outbreak in India, given the constantly changing nature of malaria trends in the modern day such as antibiotic resistance, climate change, vector characteristics, among others. With the help of the nation's skilled youth from top technical schools, this programme seeks to develop scalable solutions to bridge the gaps of curtailing malaria and improve overall health of the nation."

"The primary goal is to harness the power of technology & collective intelligence to develop innovative solutions that contribute to the global fight against Malaria. The event would focus on fostering creativity, collaboration & out of the box thinking to address the key challenges in malaria prevention, diagnosis & treatment," said Pratik Kumar, President, Prayatna.

Geetika Dayal, ED, TiE Delhi-NCR, added, "The program is focused on inviting path-breaking startups, which through their IT-enabled innovation can help alleviate the issue of malaria outbreaks. TiE Delhi- NCR has played a pivotal role in providing a platform for entrepreneurs & startups to showcase their innovations. We are glad to partner with Reckitt on this unique initiative which can be a gamechanger in the fight against diseases caused by mosquitoes not only in India but internationally."

The major areas of concern for malaria that requires improvement through IT-enabled innovation in India are as follows:

i. Real time surveillance systems focused on patterns of mosquito infestations with defined patterns of malaria outbreaks and hotspots factoring in climate change, extreme temperatures, rainfall, flora and fauna for policy makers, healthcare workforce, and programme implementers to make informed data driven decisions.

ii. Forecasting increased mosquito infestations and malaria outbreaks factoring in climate change, extreme temperatures, rainfall, flora and fauna viz., AQI, Accuweather, targeted at all users from academia, policy makers, programme implementation and general population.

iii. Gradient heat mapping of the hotspot areas of mosquito breeding sites and malarial outbreaks targeted at policy makers, healthcare workforce, and programme implementers.

iv. Scalable model encompassing of (i-iii) from grass root level to national level.

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