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Harbinger 2024 heading

HaRBInger : Global Hackathon

Harbinger 2023 Introduction Content

Harbinger Harbinger

Introduction

A hackathon is an event organised to bring together people and entities for the development of innovative solutions for the existing challenges in specified area through problem statements. The problem statements are worked upon by the participants who include, but not limited to, individuals, teams, entities from the hardware/software and coding community during the limited time-period of the hackathon. The modus operandi of a hackathon is a competitive event where the participants submit ideas, create solutions, exhibit the prototypes, and the solutions are judged by a panel to arrive at the winner/s of the hackathon. The solutions thus achieved are primarily technology driven innovative solutions which can be used or promoted by the organisers to refine the existing processes. 
 
 

Harbinger heading

Harbinger: Global Hackathon

Harbinger Introduction Content

Introduction

A hackathon is an event organised to bring together people and entities for the development of innovative solutions for the existing challenges in specified area through problem statements. The problem statements are worked upon by the participants who include, but not limited to, individuals, teams, entities from the hardware/software and coding community during the limited time-period of the hackathon. The modus operandi of a hackathon is a competitive event where the participants submit ideas, create solutions, exhibit the prototypes, and the solutions are judged by an external panel to arrive at the winner/s of the hackathon. The solutions thus achieved are primarily technology driven innovative solutions which can be used or promoted by the organisers to refine the existing processes. 
 
In order to find innovative solutions to the existing challenges in the banking and finance landscape Reserve Bank launched the first edition of its global hackathon HARBINGER ‘Innovation for Transformation on November 9, 2021 and invited solutions from domestic and global fintech companies, programmers, and students on four problem statements related to payments landscape. Subsequently, the second edition of HARBINGER was launched on February 14, 2023 with problem statements focused on inclusive digital services. 
 
The Hackathons ran in three phases with shortlisting of proposals in the first phase, solution development in the second phase followed by the final evaluation in the third phase. The winning solutions were adjudicated by a team of external experts and the teams were awarded prizes.

Event archive (year-wise):

  • 2024
  • 2023
  • 2021

About HARBINGER 2024

About HaRBInger 2024

With the successful completion of two editions of HaRBInger, it is time for the next edition of the RBI global hackathon – ‘HaRBInger 2024 - Innovation for Transformation’ with new themes and a new set of problem statements. India's journey in FinTech underscores a commitment to responsible innovation, inclusivity, trust, and confidence in the digital finance landscape. The digitalisation of finance has transformed the payments landscape with near-instantaneous settlements, facilitating convenience and efficiency. Significant efforts continue on an ongoing basis to fortify the financial sector against fraudulent activities. Some of these include, fostering innovation for fraud mitigation by establishing dedicated cohorts in Regulatory Sandboxes for fraud detection, under which innovative products are tested, highlighting the risks of cyber threats through public awareness campaigns like “RBI Kehta Hai”, e-BAAT programmes, etc. One of the problem statements of the first edition of HaRBInger was “Social Media Analysis Monitoring tool for detection of digital payment fraud and disruption”.  Entities also use fraud detection techniques to detect and curb various kinds of frauds. However, this journey has also seen increase in the potential for new types of fraud, with fraudsters deploying more sophisticated techniques to target customers. It is, therefore, crucial to address the challenges effectively and prevent fraudulent activities by promptly detecting suspicious behaviour and effectively countering fraudulent attempts.
Visually impaired people face challenges in availing financial services and remain one of the most vulnerable groups of society. Reserve Bank has prioritised inclusivity for the ‘Divyang’ in the realm of digital finance, mandating accessibility standards and promoting assistive technology development thereby fostering equal access to finance. Other initiatives in this regard include, “talking ATMs with Braille keypads” and “suitable infrastructure requirements specific to persons with disabilities in bank premises”. Further, one of the problem statements of the second edition of HaRBInger was “Innovative, easy-to-use, digital banking services for differently abled (Divyang)”. In order to make financial services “Divyang Friendly”, there is a need to foster inclusivity in design by leveraging technology. 
To encourage innovation and new thinking in these areas, Reserve Bank of India is organising its third global hackathon - HaRBInger 2024 with two themes across four problem statements. HaRBInger 2024 invites your innovative ideas for the problem statements as detailed below:

Fintech Problem Statements Harbinger-2024 Theme 1

Problem Statement

Theme 1: “Zero Financial Frauds”

The rise of real-time payments has led to an increase in social engineering frauds, where fraudsters deceive victims into sending money to fraudulent accounts. Given the rapid settlement of these transactions, retrieving the transferred funds presents a formidable challenge. Furthermore, traditional data sources, such as credit reports and transaction history, while valuable, offer a limited perspective on consumer behaviour. Immediate intervention is crucial to prevent such frauds and minimize financial losses. Prompt detection and reporting of fraudulent transactions are essential, as any delay significantly diminishes the chances of fund recovery. Additionally, leveraging alternate data sources provides a more sophisticated approach to identifying and mitigating fraudulent activities, offering deeper insights into users' behaviour, lifestyle, and financial strength.
Participants are encouraged to develop solutions which may in real-time, help in detection and prevention of frauds using AI/ML, API, Data Analytics and other cutting edge technologies. These systems should not only accurately identify fraudulent activities but also minimise false positives, using various data sources such as behavioural, biometric and social media data, quickly report and prevent further frauds, thus enhancing recovery prospects. Furthermore, participants are encouraged to utilize novel technologies to gather alternate data sources, enabling innovative use of information available in public domain to predict fraudulent transactions and identify potential red flags overlooked by traditional data sources.

In addition to ensuring safety and security of digital transactions, it is also imperative to safeguard the privacy of users to instil public trust in the system. In this regard, there is a need to follow a cautious approach to ensure balance between establishing the identity of user while at the same time preventing erosion of privacy, especially with regard to transaction details. Participants are invited to develop new technology solutions that offer robust privacy of digital tokens like CBDCs without compromising on the transaction validation mechanism, system integrity, fraud mitigation measures and reporting requirements. Solutions may employ innovative ways of safeguarding anonymity and may also include features that allow anonymity within a threshold. Beyond the threshold, the solution should facilitate compliance to applicable AML/ CFT guidelines.  Solutions should necessarily cater to the use case of digital tokens being issued within the regulated framework of India.

Mule accounts are often utilised for illicit activities such as money laundering and fraud. In cases of cyber fraud, the stolen money is frequently routed through multiple accounts before being withdrawn. The victims are duped by fraudsters into laundering stolen/illegal money via their bank account and they are unknowingly complicit in criminal activity. They also suffer financial losses if their bank accounts are closed or frozen. It is challenging for law enforcement agencies and banks/ payment system operators to take prompt action and trace various hops of transactions. Solutions may be developed using the emerging technologies for identifying the mule accounts which may trace the transaction chain and raise alerts so that funds can be blocked/ recovered, if required. The solution may also analyse transaction patterns, detect suspicious activities associated with mule accounts, identify anomalies in transaction behaviour and flag potential cases of money laundering or fraud for further investigation.

Fintech Problem Statements Harbinger-2024 Theme 2

Theme 2: “Being Divyang Friendly”

Identifying currency notes can be a significant challenge for individuals with visual impairments. The aim is to solicit and build technological solutions to assist fully or partially visually impaired persons in accurately identifying and differentiating between various denominations of Indian banknotes in circulation, for their enhanced inclusivity into the financial landscape. Participants are expected to design and develop innovative accessible, secure, cost-effective, user friendly, and adaptable devices / solutions that utilize technologies such as computer vision, machine learning, optical character recognition (OCR), haptics, or wearable devices etc. for the purpose. The solutions should be an improvement over existing features available in the market and empower visually impaired individuals to independently identify and manage currency notes in their daily lives. It may be noted that proposals for change in any design or security features (visible or invisible) of the banknotes will, however, not be accepted.

Query_Harbinger_2024

Where to Apply?

HaRBInger 2024 is owned and sponsored by RBI and is hosted on Application Programming Interface Exchange (APIX) platform. A participant may click on the following link to register for the hackathon and submit the proposal after the registration.

https://app.apixplatform.com/h1/harbinger2024

Applications will be received only through the online process. RBI will shortlist the most promising solutions for further stages of the HaRBInger 2024.

Who can apply?

All entities, teams or individuals (eighteen years and above) who are eligible to enter into a contractual agreement are eligible to apply. Further, the product/solution should have an element of innovation or novel application of technology serving common good.

Participants from all backgrounds and geographies are welcome, albeit knowledge about the Indian financial services market and consumers is preferred.

How to apply?

Please click on the link for registration.

https://app.apixplatform.com/h1/harbinger2024

Once registered, select the problem statement, and submit your proposal on the platform. Please fill in the responses for all the proposal questions.


You may apply for more than one problem statement if you fulfil all the criteria set out in each category. Your solution can aim to address the needs covered by more than one problem statement. We are looking at the uniqueness of the proposition and feasibility of the business model alongside to achieve the desired goal.

Applications will be received only through the given link. HaRBInger 2024 shall run in four phases with Screening of entries (Phase I), Shortlisting of entries for Solution Development (Phase II), Solution Development (Phase III) and Evaluation and selection of winners (Phase IV).  RBI will shortlist the most promising solutions for the finals. The shortlisted entities need to submit a working solution which would be evaluated to decide the winners. The winners will be selected based on certain evaluation criteria inter alia understanding of the problem, innovation, solution comprehensiveness, ease of implementation, demonstration/user experience, etc. during the finals.

Fintech-Harbinger-Important Dates Harbinger 2024

Important Dates:

Registration & Submission of the proposal

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Start Date: June 07, 2024

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End Date: July 19, 2024

Fintech-Harbinger-Prizes Harbinger 2024

Prizes:

  • Winners in each category of problem statements will get prize money of INR 40 lakh.
  • Special prize:  INR 20 lakh to the best ‘all woman team' (a team comprising of only woman members), across all the four problem statements.

Stipend: INR 5 lakh to teams shortlisted for Solution Development (Phase III) for meeting the cost of development of prototype

 

Fintech-Harbinger-2024-ContactUs

Contact Us

For HaRBInger 2024 related queries, please send a mail to

For technical queries during registration or proposal submission process, please reach out to

Fintech HARBINGER Media

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