Planning Commission to hold 32-hour 'Hackathon' in april

The event, a first of its kind by any govt body wil linvolve students, roungsters, others in preparing infotainment, story boards, mobile apps, etc

As part of its ongoing effort to generate a public debate on 12th five-year plan through various social media platforms, the Planning Commission will organise a 32 hour 'hackathon' in association with 12 major universities of the country on April 6 and 7.

The event which would be a first of kind initiative by any government body will involve students, youngsters and others in preparing infotainment, story boards, mobile apps, erutainmaint etc on the various initiatives mentioned in the plan. "We have been working on this since that last 2-3 months and now it is almost formalised," a senior Planning Commission official said.

The Commission has also started making extensive use of social media platforms like facebook, twitter, youtube, slide share flickr and google plus for this purpose. The Commission's twitter account for activated few days back and so also its facebook page.

"We have realized that we need not only to respond to the criticisms but also propagate our approach to various issues mainly to the younger generation so social media is the perfect platform," Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia recently told reporters.

He said that the Commission would henceforth try and engage with youth of the nation as much as possible through these mediums. Ahluwalia will for the first time will participate in a live interaction on Google Hangout on Friday on the occasion of the 63rd anniversary of the Commission. The interaction will be from 1700 Hrs on Friday.

The hangout will have participants from sarpanch, politicians and representatives from the civil society.