Come August 17, Bengaluru’s best IT brains will hack their way to social reforms. Equipped with extensive, national-level data sets, some of the city's most brilliant analytical minds will pit themselves against each other, giving commentaries on existing policies, suggesting ways to improve upon them and come up with an easy solution – like an app – to help people be the change they want to see. IT minds are all set to break the stereotype and stop looking at public policy as something that simply doesn't concern them.
The day-long hackathon has been organised by the Center for Public Policy, Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore and will take place on August 16. “Bengaluru has the best IT professionals and data analysts, it’s time we put our skills to use,” said Sridhar Pabbisetty, COO, Center for Public Policy. “What we are looking at in a team is diversity, a well-rounded team needs people who understand coding and data analytics, as well as people who understand social science and management.”
Apart from merely challenging IT skills, the hackathon is also an attempt to move towards evidence-based policy making. The survey data will represent a very large set of people, discussing their situation in terms of health, education, infrastructure and employment. How can one increase access to schools for everybody? Healthcare is expensive, but can't be done without. How can it be provided to everybody, irrespective of their ability to pay?
These are the kinds of ideas participants will toy with, providing commentaries on the policies that exist and making changes with reference to the data they are provided with. People interested in taking part can register on the IIM-B website.