The "One Week Hackathon 2019" which was kicked off on Monday in Hyderabad, Bengaluru and other centres has seen active participation from employees, customers and NGOs hack and collaborate to build solutions for the world, the company said in a statement on Wednesday.
"Hackathon enables employees to collaborate to solve a problem they care about, with a focus on the big picture. Employees take on challenges they feel passionate about or to come up with 'the next big thing' for our customers and create experiences that are accessible to all," said Reena Dayal, Director Garage India, Microsoft.
A flagship programme of Microsoft "Garage", the hackathon focuses on empowering employees, teams and the organization through upskilling, collaboration on a broader perspective and building on new ideas of applying tech in interesting ways.
Earlier hackathons have seen great products such as the "Seeing AI" app, Xbox adaptive controller Kaizala and "SMS Organiser".
"We are very excited about the latest edition of the 'One Week Hackathon 2019.' For the first time in India, we have invited customers and NGOs to our campus to hack with Microsoft employees to solve challenges through technology," Dayal added.
"The hackathon was a great experience and opportunity to ideate and accelerate solutions for mass entrepreneurs in a very short period. Market discovery through tech enablement is much needed and we had a good outcome which has the potential to solve for market linkages and be a game changer," said Vidya Chandy from Global Alliance for Mass Entrepreneurship.
"Marrying Microsoft's mission to empower everyone to achieve more with Deshpande Foundation's grassroot knowledge of the problems that Indian farmers face is the epitome of using technology for real-time Innovation," added Mohd Innus Khan, Director of Agriculture at Deshpande Foundation.
( With inputs from IANS )