Coopathon 3.0 launched with a focus on the transition to “We” from “I”

The third edition of Coopathon – the Cooperative Hackathon started on 11th December (Friday), on a virtual platform, Airmeet will be live until 14th December (Monday). It aims to identify and grapple with problems and challenges in the social and service sectors.

This is the first time a cooperative hackathon is being organized as a fully online event and that too for an international audience. The Coopathon 3.0 also brings a diverse pool of partners and mentors to provide pre, during, and post-event support, mentorship, and industry-connect for the participants to develop successful solutions, claims a press release sent by the organizers.

Giving details the release says over 80+ entries were received from 12 countries and 41 teams were shortlisted to participate in the 72-hour hackathon. Out of these, six teams will be selected for the final live pitch, top three teams will be declared as winners and will be awarded three prizes (US $3,000, US $2,000, and US $1,500). The first and second prizes are being sponsored by IFFCO and the third prize by the ICA Domus Trust.

Balu Iyer, Regional Director, ICA-AP, inaugurated the event with his welcome address. He highlighted the key components that the Coopathon 3.0 focuses on – the youth, technology, and the transition from “I” to “We”.

Balu talked about the challenges that we are facing today due to the COVID 19 pandemic, and how, through Coopathon 3.0 we are trying to address them.

Sundeep Kumar Nayak, Managing Director, NCDC was the keynote speaker. NCDC is championing start-up cooperatives among youth, pioneering support for health cooperatives, and forming new cooperatives in line with the government’s vision to double farmers ‘income.

The Coopathon 3.0 is being organized with the support of nine partner organisations from six countries, namely IFFCO, ANGKASA, ICCI, IKOPIN, Incubator.coop, KODI, Mondragon Team Academy, Korea, and Travelling University. The event also features 13 mentors from nine countries (Australia, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Philippines, Spain, and the USA) bringing onboard experiences from diverse fields to add value to the prototype-building process. Tarun Bhargava is one of the Judges for the COOPATHON 3.0.