Indian govt launches video conferencing app challenge; winner to bag prize money of Rs 1 cr

Zoom video conferencing has been under the radar for several security-related concerns after its increasing popularity over the past few months. Adding more trouble to the rising concerns was the Indian government announcing Zoom unsafe, further advising its citizens to avoid using the app. Now, to help find secure alternatives, the government of India has launched a new challenge for Indian companies with prize money of Rs 1 crore.

The new challenge called “Innovation Challenge for Development of Video Conferencing Solution” aims at bringing out the best solution for a video conferencing app without compromising on user security and privacy.

All Indian companies can participate in the challenge until April 30. In order to win the challenge, the developer team needs to ensure it meets all the requirements. These include the video conferencing app's compatibility on any device, working in a poor network while consuming less power while providing encryption.

Winner of the “Innovation Challenge for Development of Video Conferencing Solution” will be announced on July 29, and the winning team will get Rs 1 crore as prize money and a certificate from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.

Although Zoom has announced that it will focus on improving security on its platform within three months, security woes continue to trouble the company. Several reports of Zoom-bombing and account information breach have been reported online. Recently, it was reported that details of over 5 lakh Zoom accounts were available on the dark web, and some of them were even on sale for free.

In case you are planning to delete your Zoom account, here is a step-by-step guide to do so.