India ranks second in hosting hackathons

India ranks second in conducting hackathons with 105 events hosted since 2015, next only to the US, a new report said on Friday.

According to the 'Global Hackathon Report' by HackerEarth, a talent management software provider, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Hyderabad feature in the top 10 cities worldwide to host maximum hackathons.

With 379 hackathons, the US topped the list of countries, while London (31) and San Francisco (28) occupied the top two places among cities.

Not only IT but other sectors like banking, food, climate, and health care are also experimenting with hackathons to address problem-solving.

"The report outlines a clear trend that hackathons are successfully battling talent scarcity, acquisition and retention as well as fuelling innovation across domains and functions," said Sachin Gupta, CEO and Co-founder, HackerEarth, in a statement.

Nearly 50 per cent of the hackathons were hosted by private organisations of different sectors to develop low-cost solutions, fast-track innovative ideas and encourage creativity among employees.

Around 52 per cent of the events are recurring hackathons with annual editions, the report added.

Emerging technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT), Machine Learning (ML), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Augmented reality (AR)/Virtual reality (VR) were among the top domains featuring the events, followed by mobile app and web development.

--IANS

sau/na/dg