Tone Tag, a brand of Naffa Innovations Pvt Ltd, has been declared the winner in two categories in the RBI's first global hackathon Harbinger 2021, organised to encourage entrepreneurs to suggest innovative solutions for smarter digital payments. The Reserve Bank had launched its first global hackathon - "Harbinger 2021 - Innovation for Transformation" with the theme 'Smarter Digital Payments' in November 2021.
In a statement, the RBI said the hackathon had received an encouraging response with 363 proposals submitted by teams from within India and 22 other countries, including the US, UK, Sweden, Singapore, Philippines and Israel.
The hackathon ran in three phases, with shortlisting of proposals in the first phase, solution development in the second phase and the final evaluation in the third phase.
The third phase of the final evaluation was held on May 26-27, 2022, in Bengaluru wherein 24 finalist teams presented their solutions for the problem statements to the jury of external experts, who evaluated and selected the winners and runners-up based on parameters like innovation, technology, demonstration, user experience, security, and ease of implementation.
India-based Tone Tag has been declared the winner in two segments -- 'Innovative, easy-to-use, non-mobile digital payment solutions for converting small-ticket cash transactions to digital mode' and 'Context-based retail payments to remove the physical act of paymen'.
In all, there were four categories.
napID Cybersec Pvt Ltd (INDIA) and TrustCheckr (INDIA) were the winners of the other two categories.
The runner-ups were Extolabs LLC (USA); neoEYED (USA); Sperotel Technologies LLP (INDIA); Ezetap Mobile Solutions Pvt Ltd (India); and Lalit Kumar Pagaria (India).
"These innovative products are expected to bring additional benefits in the payments ecosystem viz inclusion of the underprivileged through non-mobile payment solutions and prevention of digital payment frauds through smart-secure alternate authentication methods as well as timely analysis of social media posts," the RBI said.
Some of the products also offer a seamless payment experience to the customers, it said, and added that these products have the potential for wider adoption and can be integrated with the existing payment infrastructure subject to compliance with applicable regulatory requirements.
They can contribute to the ease and accessibility of digital payments while strengthening customer protection, the central bank said.
Source Name:-Economic Times