India and Sweden join hands to host digital hackathon on mobility

NEW DELHI: India and Sweden will host a 42-hour digital hackathon on mobility to tackle issues regarding safe and sustainable transportation, a statement from the organizers said on Wednesday. The 'Sweden-India Mobility Hackathon: Changing the way we move!' aims to "design, test and execute ideas" for the future and will take place from February 26 to 28, it said.

Organized jointly by the Embassy of Sweden, the Consulate General of Sweden in Mumbai and the Swedish Institute, it invites students, entrepreneurs, innovation enthusiasts, developers, designers, creatives and mobility experts across both countries. According to the organizers, the participants will collaborate on digital innovations to create functioning solutions to predetermined challenges like "lethal accidents in traffic, safe and sustainable transport, air pollution/emissions from the traffic sector, infrastructure for connected vehicles and sustainable logistics". "Sustainable transport and road safety are areas that our governments are deeply engaged in. As emissions, traffic accidents and inefficient traffic flow characterize more and more of the world's major cities, the hack aims to develop solutions to these problems," said Klas Molin, Ambassador of Sweden to India. "It's very encouraging to see that several Indian organizations and companies have joined the hackathon as partners," Molin said.

Anna Lekvall, Consul General of Sweden in Mumbai, added, “Innovation is at the heart of the Sweden India relationship, and safe, sustainable transport has grown immensely as a vital new area of co-operation." "The Sweden-India Mobility Hackathon is expanding this partnership, providing a strong platform for students, start-ups, companies, experts from the two countries to co-create new solutions for mobility. Together, we can change the way we move,” Lekvall added.

According to the statement, the theme of the hackathon has a strong connection to the "joint innovation partnership" that exists between India and Sweden and the Sweden-India Transport Safety and Innovation Platform (SITIS), which was launched in February last year. The event is supported by several Swedish and Indian partners including startups, incubators, research institutes, innovation cells, road safety organizations and companies in sectors of sustainability, automotives and transport, it said.